Cinema chief named entrepreneur of year

Tim Richards, an entrepreneur who created a cinema chain worth £350m from scratch in just eight years, has won the title UK Entrepreneur of The Year 2006.

Mr Richards, founder of Vue Entertainment, follows Peter Cullum of Tower Underwriting and Bill Gammell of Cairn Energy in winning national laurels in one of the UK's oldest and best-known enterprise contests, organised by Ernst & Young and co-sponsored by the Financial Times.

Mr Richards left a career as a high-flying executive with Warner Brothers in Los Angeles to start Vue from the garage of his new home in the UK, where he saw greater potential for growth than North America. His aim was to break away from the "nightclub feel" of UK cinemas in the 1990s by "turning the music down and the lights up".

Mr Richards created a chain of six cinemas with the backing of Boston Ventures. In 2003 he bought Warner Village Cinemas from Warner Brothers for £250m with additional backing from Clarity Partners and Legal & General Ventures, adding 36 cinemas.

In June managers led by Mr Richards, who is chief executive, bought out Vue's three backers for £350m. The team gained a 51 per cent stake in Vue with the balance held by HBOS, the bank, which helped finance the transaction. The chain now runs 55 cinemas with 544 screens between them. Vue made operating profits of £12.1m on sales of £161m in the year to November 25.

Mr Richards, a Canadian, flirted with a career as a skier before using legal training as a route into employment with Warner Brothers in Los Angeles. He created national chains of cinemas under the guidance of Millard Ochs, Warner president, but "became frustrated because I saw a lot of opportunities that were not capitalised on".

He told the FT: "It was a very scary jump going from a corner office with two secretaries to working from my garage." He said that hard work was vital to his success but luck had played an important part too.

A panel led by Lord Young of Graffham chose Mr Richards from 35 finalists following regional heats. He will represent the UK next year at an international enterprise contest in Monte Carlo organised by E&Y. Richard Hall, UK markets leader at E&Y, said Mr Richards had developed "an exceptional business model that has revolutionised the industry".

Sir Anwar Pervez, founder of the Bestway cash and carry chain, was selected as Master Entrepreneur and David Gordon of Windsave, inventor of a high-efficiency wind turbine, was Emerging Entrepreneur. Christina Domecq, creator of Spinvox, which markets an application that turns mobile phone voicemails into text messages, won the title Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

Entrepreneur of the Year 2006