By JULIA RAVENSCROFT

A WARRINGTON business which is worth £45 million has made its way into the coveted Sunday Times Rich List.

Datel, which is based at Cinnamon Park, Padgate, is run by managing director Alan Simpson who has built the workforce up from just two to 120.

Alan, who is 45, has been running the business since 1989, and has turned it into one of the country's leading suppliers in business management systems.

Alan, who is married with three children and lives near Wigan, started his career in the IT industry in 1977 when he took one of the few degrees in computer science at Imperial College, London.

He went on to work at British Aerospace working on military aircraft flight software but felt he wanted to spread his wings.

He said: "I wanted to go out there on my own because it was a bit limited at British Aerospace."

He started Datel, which transferred to Warrington last year, as a partnership which later split two ways, with him running the business side of the company.

He said: "I honestly didn't think computers were going to be as big as they have become. I didn't think I would end up with my own business."

Alan was pleased to find his company's name in the 'Rich List', and said: "It is nice to be in the top 1,000 in the country but if you asked me for £2 million I couldn't give it to you. The wealth is in the business.

"I think to become successful you have to have a good product, you need good people around, it involves hard work and you must be open and honest with staff and customers. When starting out it is a lot of hard work and later it eases off with more staff. But I really enjoy my work."

Warrington DJ Chris Evans was also featured in the list and is worth a whopping £77 million.