Cov & Warks Rich List 2017
Some of Coventry and Warwickshire’s wealthiest people have featured in the annual barometer of the region’s richest. This year’s Birmingham Post Rich List has a strong oriental flavour, with the Chinese owners of Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Bromwich Albion making the cut. The 2017 Rich List has seen the overall wealth of the 50 individuals or families on it increase by almost £8billion The 2017 total wealth adds up to almost £25billion compared with £17billion in 2016. Topping the list this year is new Wolves owner Guo Guanchang, who has a fortune estimated at £4.2billion. Here business reporter ENDA MULLEN looks at some of the others with strong Coventry and Warwickshire connections. The bracketed figures indicate their placing, and wealth, in 2016.
4 (4) John Bloor Wealth: £1.25 billion (£1 billion) Industry: Manufacturing/construction FOUNDER of Bloor Holdings, the parent company of Bloor Homes and Hinckley-based Triumph Motorcycles, which has its roots in Coventry.
The Derbyshire-born 73 yearold, who trained as a plasterer, has poured more than £80 million into rebuilding the 100 yearold Triumph brand.
The company has factories in Brazil, Thailand and India.
Mr Bloor was awarded the OBE in 1995 for services to the motorcycle industry but rarely rides due to hip problems.
Measham-based Bloor Homes is one of the largest privately-owned housebuilding groups in the UK.
The combined group is worth more than £1.2 billion.
9 (12) Lord Edmiston Wealth: £750m (£475m) Industry: property/automotive LORD Edmiston’s Coleshillbased property investment and development group IM Properties owns a string of landmark sites across the UK.
These include Birmingham’s 55 Colmore Row, being developed as office space; and Blythe Valley Business Park, Solihull, where plans include a hotel, care home and 750 houses. The group’s profits went through the £100million barrier in 2015, up from £42.5million in 2014.
IM Group’s automotive arm imports Subaru, Daihatsu, Great Wall and Isuzu vehicles.
In August the company acquired Citroen Motors Ireland.
Chairman of the group, Lord Edminston, aged 70, is one of the UK’s biggest philanthropic donors and is quitting the House of Lords to devote more time to religious and educational charities.
10 (8=) Tony Gallagher Wealth: £600m (£550m)
Industry: construction OWNER and Chairman of Gallagher UK – one of the most successful privately-owned property development and investment companies in the UK
Warwickshire-based Mr Gallagher’s projects continue to benefit from increases in the value of land banks.
He has spent more than three decades accumulating land and property assets ranging from retail parks, housing plots and industrial sites.
Work is underway to expand the Gallagher Retail Park near Junction 9 of the M6 at Wednesbury, bringing in Marks & Spencer, Currys, Costa Coffee and Nandos.
Flagship developments include Warwick Gates Business Park.
The 65 year-old is the son of Irish immigrants from Mayo and Cavan, whose father JJ Gallagher lived on the outskirts of Birmingham and was a construction entrepreneur.
11= with Caspar MacDonaldHall - Sir Peter Rigby (8=) Wealth: £550m (£550m) Industry: IT/ aerospace/ hotels CHAIRMAN and chief executive of the Rigby Group which is seeing success and investment across its six divisions of technology, airports, hotels, real estate, aviation and financial services.
The group owns Coventry Airport, Exeter International Airport and operates Blackpool and Derry airports.
Its subsidiary, British International Helicopters, operates search and rescue services in the Falklands Islands for the Ministry of Defence.
The hotels group, under the Eden Hotel Collection branding, include Bovey Castle on Dartmoor, Brockencote Hall in Worcestershire, Mallroy Court Hotel near Leamington, Kings Hotel in Chipping Campden, and Arden Hotel in Stratford. Liverpool-born Sir Peter, aged 73, founded his company in 1975 with just £2,000 in cash. His sons, James and Steven are both senior directors. The Rigby Foundation Charitable Trust supports child related causes and children’s hospices. Sir Peter, a qualified fixed wing and helicopter pilot, was knighted in the Queen’s Jubilee Honours for his contribution to information technology and business.
16 (14) Thomas Mackie and family Wealth: £440m (£440m) Industry: electrical OWNS City Electrical Factors Holdings Ltd, an electrical products wholesaler which employs around 8,000 people worldwide, including 3,000 in the UK. Mr Mackie’s grandfather, also called Thomas, founded the company in Coventry in 1951, selling cables and light fittings to local contractors. He died in January 2012 aged 89.
CEF now has branches nearly 400 UK branches, 360 in the US and outlets in Spain and Austria.
The company relocated to Kenilworth in the 1960s.
21= with Andrew and Linda Leaver and family – Keith Bradshaw and family (19=) Wealth: £210 (£180m) Industry: care homes/ automotive CO-FOUNDED Listers car dealership – England’s largest independent dealership group, which has its roots.in Coventry – with Terry Lister (number 37=) almost four decades ago.
The Stratford-upon-Avon company turns over more than £1 billion a year and is worth at least £250 million. It made a profit of £21.5 million in 2016.
Franchises, include BMW, Land Rover, Jaguar, SEAT, Audi, Honda, Toyota, Lexus, Mercedes and Volkswagen.
Aston-born Mr Bradshaw, aged 73, is chairman and 50 per cent owner.
He attended Handsworth Technical College and qualified as an accountant before spending time in South Africa.
His charitable roles include chairing the trustees of the Library of Birmingham and Deputy Lieutenant of the West Midlands.
He was appointed High Sheriff of the County of West Midlands in April.
27 (23) James Holder Wealth: £165m (£165m)
Industry: fashion WARWICKSHIRE-BORN cofounder of SuperGroup fashion, which owns the Superdry brand sold in more than 100 companies.
The Cheltenham-based fashion chain has pushed its sales up to £589.5 million for 2015-16 compared to £486.6 million the previous year.
A further 24 new stores have opened across Europe and new distribution centres are planned for Europe and North America.
In 2015 the firm signed joint venture with Chinese rival Trendy International Group to take the brand into China.
Born in Studley, Mr Holder, 44, leads the SuperDesign Lab, which focuses on new product
innovation. He began his career in fashion at college in Leamington Spa 25 year ago, selling T-shirts at BMX events from the back of his mother’s car.
He founded the Bench brand and was declared bankrupt in 1998 after signing away his shares.
But he carried on designing and founded Superdry 12 years ago with Julian Dunkerton and Theo Karpathios.
37= with Constantine Folkes - Terry Lister and family (35) Wealth: £125m (£120m)
Industry: automotive CO-FOUNDER of Listers car dealership, England’s largest independent dealer group which has its roots in Coventry, with Keith Bradshaw (number 21).
The company made a profit of £21.5 million in 2016. The Lister family stake is worth around £110million.
The motor group saw increased trading, boosted by its expanding portfolio of dealerships across the Midlands, East Anglia and the north of England.
Mr Lister, aged 74, is 50 per cent owner of the company which employs 1,700.
39 (32=) Dr Dallas Burston Wealth: £120m (£125m) Industry: pharmaceuticals A FORMER GP, Dr Dallas Burston made his fortune building up and selling pharmaceutical operations.
In 1999 he sold Northampton-based Bartholomew-Rhodes for £19.8 million, and his 51 per cent stake in Ashbourne Pharmaceuticals for £32 million – netting more than £50 million. He also founded Dallas Burston Ltd, which developed under-thetongue pharmaceutical sprays, acquired by Cambridge-based SynGenix in 2003 in a share deal.
The 67 year-old’s latest company is DB Ashbourne Ltd – a £90 million medicines business based in Market Harborough – which was acquired by French company Ethypharm for an undisclosed sum in 2015.
Dr Burston is a passionate polo fan and is currently overseeing a £122 million investment in his club at Southam in Warwickshire.
41= with Robert Plant - Simon Preedy and family (32=) Wealth: £105m (£125m)
Industry: manufacturing MANAGING director of Warwickshire-based Maria Tube Fittings which specialises in metal tube manufacture which it supplies clients around the world from oil companies to plumbers.
It is one of the UK’s largest steel stockists.
Profits fell in 2015 to £4.7 million from £13.1 million in 2014.
Sales were also down to £54.5 million but the company has net assets of more than £62 million.
It is based on the Arden Forest Industrial Estate in Alcester and was founded in 1956.
46 (44=) Christopher Taylor and family Wealth: £90m (£85m) Industry: pharmaceuticals RUN The Pharmacy Group - previously known as Dudley Taylor Pharmaceuticals and set up by Christopher’s father in Truro in the 1930s and now based in Warwickshire with 60 branches across England.
The business is committed to community healthcare with profits of £6.7 million on a £63.4 million turnover in 2015.
After the war Dudley Taylor, who served with the RAF, worked for Boots and for private pharmacies and opened his first shop in Brentford using £1,000 borrowed from his father.
In 2000 the operation sold off around 80 shops to Moss Pharmacy, now Alli- ance Boots, for £68 million leaving the company to concentrate on around 25 core Midlands and Welsh outlets. Further expansion has doubled this number.
A second pharmacy firm, Dowelhurst Holdings, was sold in 2005 for £40 million.
47= with Jeff Lynne - Jim McCarthy (50) Wealth: £85m (£65m)
Industry: retail THE former chief executive of Poundland, which he sold to South African group Steinhoff in the summer, retaining a stake which added at least £20 million to his fortune.
The 61 year-old stepped down in September after more than a decade in charge of the value-formoney supermarket. Under his stewardship Poundland’s sales hit £1 billion.
He was previously chief executive of T&S Stores and earned “a few millions” when it was sold to Tesco in 2003.
His third windfall came in 2014 with Poundland’s successful stock market flotation. He remains a significant shareholder with four per cent of the business. Mr McCarthy, who was brought up in Warwickshire and Birmingham, is chairman of Wynnstay, an agricultural products business and consumer goods firm Ultimate Products.