It’s the time of year when the bean counters tot up the personal fortunes of Britain’s super rich and create a league table of wealth.
Never a place for tycoons, York has only one entry in the 1,000-long list which makes up the Sunday Times Rich List 2016.
And that is the Shepherd family. Owners of construction firm the Shepherd Group, including the modular building business Portakabin, they are worth £253 million according to the research.
And the sale followed that of Fulford-based Shepherd Homes to Galliford Try. The group also made 55 people redundant.
According to the Sunday Times the family’s £253 million fortune has not changed from last year.
Frederick Shepherd founded the Shepherd business in 1890, in York. Since then, the companies which form Shepherd Group have developed to operate on a major scale, currently employing around 1,700 people.
– source: Shepherd Group website
But they have slipped in the super-rich rankings. Still the 16th richest in Yorkshire, the Shepherds have dropped from 389= in 2015’s national table to a mere 415= this year.
Yorkshire’s other tycoons
Philip Meeson, who runs Leeds-based holiday airline Jet2.com, has seen his fortune rise by 131% in a year to £386m, catapulting him into the Yorkshire rich list.
A £540m increase in wealth lifts Robert Miller to the top of the 2016 Yorkshire Rich List. Miller, his daughter Princess Marie-Chantal and wider family are now worth £1.58bn after a near-20% rise in the value of LVMH, the French luxury goods group that holds a controlling stake in Hong Kong-Duty Free Shoppers.
He owns the the 36,000-acre (146 km2) Gunnerside Estate in Swaledale, one of the largest sporting country estates in Britain.
Miller has deposed brothers Eddie and Malcolm Healey from the head of the Yorkshire rich list. Eddie, 78, sold his Parc Trostre retail park, in Llanelli, for £156m in 2014, a fraction of the price achieved for his Meadowhall centre, near Sheffield, which sold for £1.17bn in 1999.
Malcolm, 71, sold his Hygena Kitchens business for £200m and then repeated the process in America, selling up for £800m.
Doncaster-born Lord Kirkham retains his £1.15bn fortune, ranking third in the county. He began his furniture business in a converted billiard hall and built up the DFS chain into one of the country’s best-known brands.
Tony Murray and family completes the list of Yorkshire billionaires. At 96, Murray is the oldest person in this year’s rich list.
He has two main British operations: the Andrew Sykes business, which hires heating and air-conditioning equipment, and London Security, a fire protection concern, headquartered in Leeds.
The Yorkshire top 20 rich list is below.
Yorkshire Rich List 2016
| Rank 2016 | Rank 2015 | Name | 2016 wealth | Wealth increase/ decrease | National rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | Robert Miller and Princess Marie-Chantal and family | £1.58bn | £540m | 65 |
| 2 | 1 | Eddie and Malcolm Healey | £1.43bn | £70m | 73= |
| 3 | 2 | Lord Kirkham and family | £1.15bn | No change | 95= |
| 4 | 4 | Tony Murray and family | £1.05bn | £40m | 110= |
| 5 | 5 | Sir Ken Morrison and family | £770m | £37m | 144 |
| 6 | 6 | Paul Sykes | £690 m | No change | 172 |
| 7 | 7 | Terry Bramall and family | £425m | No change | 268= |
| 8 | - | Philip Meeson | £386m | Up £219m | 290 |
| 9 | 9 | Peter Wilkinson | £385m | Up £25m | 291= |
| 10 | 8 | Jack Tordoff and family | £383m | £15m | 294 |
| 11 | 10 | Roderick Evans and family | £350m | No change | 313= |
| 12 | 12 | Dean and Janet Hoyle | £282m | £2m | 373= |
| 13 | 13 | Alan Lewis | £280m | £10m | 377= |
| 14 | 14 | David Hood | £270m | £4m | 389= |
| 15 | 15 | John Guthrie and family | £260m | No change | 415= |
| 16 | 16 | The Shepherd family | £253m | £1m | 389= |
| 17 | 19= | Paul and Johnny Caddick and family | £250m | £50m | 418= |
| 18 | 11 | Assem Allam and family | £240m | £100m | 437= |
| 19 | 17 | Malcolm Walker and family – Iceland | £226m | £11m | 456 |
| 20= | 18 | Tony Bramall and family | £210m | £2m | 491= |
| 20= | 19= | Malcolm Walker and family – Victoria Plumb | £210m | £10m | 491= |