Rich List reveals North West is now home to 12 billionaires

Wealthy region

The 15 richest people in the North West are now worth a combined £38bn – according to the latest Sunday Times rich list.

The annual list is published this weekend and a snapshot of the region has revealed that the region is now home to 12 billionaires.

The 2019 Sunday Times Rich List is being published for the 31st consecutive year.

And according to the compilers of the league table there are a growing number of entrepreneurs joining the ranks of the super wealthy.

But the wealthy have also been affected by the economic uncertainty.

Robert Watts, who compiles of the annual list, said: “It’s easy to get the impression that the rich only ever getter richer – but three of the five wealthiest entries in our North West rich list have actually seen the size of their fortunes fall over the past year.

“The super-rich certainly have not been immune to the cyclone of change blowing through the high street or the political deadlock over Brexit.”

The list charts the wealth of the 1,000 richest people in the UK and is based on identifiable wealth, including land, property, other assets such as art and racehorses and significant shares in publicly quoted companies.

The wealthiest 15 people in the region are.

1. The Duke of Westminster – Hugh Grosvenor – and family. Worth £10.1 billion. Up £136m

The Duke of Westminster is the richest person in North West and at 28, remains the UK’s youngest billionaire.
The family’s wealth comes from the 300 acres of Mayfair and Belgravia it owns in London, together with land in Cheshire, Oxford, Scotland and Spain. The Grosvenor Group has investments in 60 cities worldwide with half its assets now held outside the UK.

2. Tom Morris and family. Worth £3.59bn. Up £100m

Tom Morris ranks second in the region, up £100m in the last year as his Home Bargains shopping chain became Merseyside’s biggest employer.
With more than 500 stores, Morris, 65, hired an average of six staff a day in 2017-18.
More than 23,000 people are now employed by Home Bargains, and assets of £912m increase its worth to £3.5bn.

3. Simon, Bobby and Robin Arora. Worth £2.26bn. Down £40m

The Arora brothers and the family are behind the B&M chain of discount stores, based on Merseyside. The firm has been built up from humble beginnings in Blackpool and supplying other chains with homeware sourced from Asia.

4. John Whittaker and family. Worth £1.95bn. Down £300m

John Whittaker is ranked fourth in the North West. The 77-year-old owns 27.32% of shopping centre landlord Intu.
Born in Bury, Whittaker got involved in the family business in the 1960s and began buying up land around Manchester Ship Canal before building the Trafford Centre.
The Peel Group owns shopping centres, ports, airports and MediaCityUK.

5. Fred and Peter Done. Worth £1.25bn. Down £100m

Peter Done

The Salford brothers opened their first Betfred branch in Pendlebury, Salford, in 1967.
They now boast more than 1,650 UK outlets and shops at 51 racecourses and took over the Tote for £265m.
Other family interests include legal services, insurance, sports promotion, a restaurant and the Salboy construction projects.

6. Henry Moser and family. Worth £1.228bn. Up £218m

Moser, who is originally from Bury, worked on market stalls before setting up his business in 1974.
As a specialist mortgage lender he added a number of bolt-on businesses including Lancashire Mortgage Corporation and Cheshire Mortgage Corporation before setting up Manchester-based Jerrold Holdings in the early 2000s.
Jerrold, based in Cheadle, has now rebranded as Together and Henry currently owns 70 per cent of the business after selling the rest to a private equity group.

7. Lord Grantchester and the Moores family. Worth £1.206bn. Up £4m

Lord Grantchester is the grandson of Sir John Moores, who founded the Littlewoods pools business in the 1920s.
The Merseyside family went on to diversify into catalogues and retail.

8. Philip Day (£1.2bn, no change) and Mohsin and Zuber Issa, also worth £1.2bn. Up £100m

Born on a Stockport council estate, Mt Day turned down a place at university to start his career in clothing manufacturing.

In 2001, he joined Edinburgh Woollen Mill and led a buyout of the company.
He later bought home furnishing company Ponden Mill and soft furnishings company Rosebys, golfing brand ProQuip, women’s fashion retailer Jane Norman, outfitters Austin Reed and Country Casuals, and British fashion brand Jaeger.

Moshin and Zuber Issa launched their international business Euro Garages in Bury

Zuber and Mohsin Issa of EG Group with their two EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards

Moshin and Zuber Issa started their Euro Garages empire in Bury in 2001, buying their first garage for £150,000.
Since then, Euro Garages has established itself as one of the UK’s fastest growing and most recognizable forecourt operators, with an expanding portfolio of more than 340 freehold-owned sites located throughout the UK and hundreds in the US and Australia.

10. Mahmud Kamani and family. Worth £1.163bn. Up £163m

Mahmud Kamani

Mahmud Kamani, 54, is a non-mover in the region, despite a £163m increase in his family’s wealth.
His family has a £929m holding in Manchester-based Boohoo. The online fashion retailer was launched from a Manchester market stall and is now valued at £2.78bn, a £500m increase on a year ago.

Mr Kamani is executive chairman and co-founder of the business, which also includes Manchester fashion business PrettyLittleThing.

11. Trevor Hemmings. Worth £1.025bn. Up £25m

Born in Woolwich, London, the majority of Hemmings’ business interests are in the North West.
His portfolio includes brewing, textiles, leisure wear and property – and horse-racing.
Mr Hemmings’ business career began when he started to build post-war homes in Lancashire.

12. Peter Jones and family. Worth £1bn. Up £100m

Mr Jones is owner and founder of property development company Emerson Developments based in Alderley Edge.
The former builder moved into housebuilding in Cheshire in 1959 and was one of the first developers to spot the development potential of south Manchester, buying up tracts of land.
As well as this he is the owner of Middlebrook Park, Boavista Golf & Spa Resort, among other properties in Portugal.

13. Sir Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell. Worth £750m. Down £70m

Beatles star Sir Paul went on to have further musical success with Wings and as a solo artist, earning a knighthood in 1997 for services to music.
He married his third wife, an American businesswoman, in 2011

14. Lawrence Jones and family. Worth £700m. Up £385m

Lawrence and Gail Jones

Rising 15 places in the regional rankings this year, Lawrence Jones has seen the biggest wealth increase in the region, up £385m from last year.
The 50-year-old has gone from a council house in Denbigh to owning Manchester-based UKFast, a cloud-hosting company valued at over £660m. A recent £205m deal saw Jones sell 31 per cent of the organisation to a private equity group, retaining a family holding worth £463m.

15. Michael and Chris Oglesby and family. Worth £667m. Up £80m.

Chris Oglesby

Chris Oglesby is chief executive of family-owned property company Bruntwood.
Over the last 42 years the company has expanded to own a third of office space in Manchester city centre.
Bruntwood owns a portfolio of 115 properties and is constantly expanding, most recently with its involvement in Manchester Science Partnership.

Click here to sign up to receive our new South West business news...
Close