The Sunday Times Rich List 2017

The Sunday Times Rich List 2017

The Sunday Times Rich List 2017

The Sunday Times Rich List 2017
The Weston family are the richest family in fashion, according to the new edition of The Sunday Times Rich List, to be published this Sunday, May 7. The 160-page special edition of The Sunday Times Magazine reveals the wealth of the 1,000 richest people in Britain.
 
The 20 wealthiest people and families in fashion in the UK is topped by Guy and George Weston and family. The brothers, whose retail empire spans Europe and North America and includes brands such as Primark, have seen their fortunes decrease by £500m this year but still boast £3.3bn more than the Barclay brothers.
 
Sir David and Frederick Barclay who take second place are worth £7.2bn, having earned an additional £200m in the last twelve months. A large part of this can be attributed to the pair’s £2bn Shop Direct operation which saw profits grow sharply in 2015-2016 although they are currently understood to be considering offloading a substantial stake in this.
 
Christo Wiese comes in at number three with £4.62bn to his name, up £290m since last year through his work with retailers including Pep & Co. He boasts £98bn more than diamond billionaires Laurence and Francois Graff who come in at number four with a total wealth of £3.64bn, but who are up by an impressive £440m since 2016.
 
Collectively, the twenty wealthiest in fashion are worth a staggering £47.25bn, with an overall growth of £3.06bn in the last year.
 
The biggest increase in wealth during the period was £1.087bn by Francois-Henri Pinault and his wife Salma Hayek while the biggest loss was experienced by the Weston family followed by Sir Philip and Lady Green at £433m. Sir David and Lady Tang and family are the only new entry to the Fashion Rich List this year, in joint 18th place, with a fortune of £500 million.
 
At 160 pages this year’s new-look Sunday Times Rich List - the 29th annual edition to be produced - is the biggest ever. The definitive guide to wealth charts the fortunes of the 1,000 richest individuals and families in the British Isles.
 
Robert Watts, the Compiler of The Sunday Times Rich List 2017, said: “From Bond Street to Bling Britain, our list shows there are many ways to make a fortune from fashion.
 
“This is a world of luxury brands and diamonds, but also Primark and Sports Direct. It’s striking how the internet and smart phones are transforming the way trends are set and clothes sold. A Boohoo billionaire may not be far away.
 
“This year’s new look Rich List lays bare how the wealth of Britain’s richest 1,000 people have fared amid the turbulence times of the past 12 months. Not everyone has had the best of seasons.”
 
British brothers Guy and George Weston, 56 and 53 respectively, and their family continue to control the Weston food and retail operation which was founded by their great-grandfather in 1882. Guy chairs the £12.75bn UK-based charity, the Garfield Weston Foundation, which owns 79.2% of Wittington Investments which is the family’s main financial vehicle. It controls Fortnum & Mason, Heal’s furniture stores and Associated British Foods (ABF) where George is chief executive. Shares in ABF – which has Primark as one of its main subsidiaries – have slipped in the past year. In addition, the brothers’ uncle Galen Sr Weston, 76, chairs London’s Selfridges Group with his daughter Alannah, 45, as his deputy.
 
Twins Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay are looking at reducing their investment in the fashion industry with a reduction of their stake in Shop Direct.  Shop Direct owns the digital retail brands Very.co.uk and Littlewoods.com. The brothers have a variety of other investments in the UK including ownership of the Ritz, the Telegraph newspapers and delivery service Yodel which lost £59.3m last year.
 
Christo Wiese’s budget fashion retailer Pep & Co launched in 2015 with a £20m investment. It opened 50 stores in as many days and plans to open up to100 more in branches of Poundland. Wiese’s investment company Brait bought the New Look fashion chain for £780m in 2015 from Tom Singh. He also has large stakes in Virgin Active gyms and supermarkets, Iceland and South-African Shoprite.
 
As the first jeweler on this list, Laurence Graff, 78, is the largest shareholder in Gem Diamonds, which owns the Letseng diamond mine in Lesotho,known for producing the world’s most spectacular diamonds. His son Francois, 53, runs Graff Diamonds International. The company saw profits of £43m on £427m turnover in 2015.
 
Francois-Henri Pinault, 54, and Salma Hayek, 50, boast the largest increase in wealth on the retail list. Francois-Henri runs Kering, the luxury fashion business built by his father. In 2016, Kering, whose brands include Gucci, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen had revenues of €12.4bn in 2016.
 
Sir Philip and Lady Green have had a substantial reduction in their personal wealth over the last year following the collapse of BHS and a reduction in the value of their stake in Arcadia retail group. The stake in Arcadia retail group owner of Topshop, Topman, Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge has reduced by £350m this year due to falling sales, reduced assets and a ballooning pension deficit.
 
As the only new entry in the 2017 list, Sir David Tang, 62, is frequently referred to as “Britain’s best-connected man”. He made his first fortune from fashion label Shanghai Tang, which he sold in 2006 and has also founded lifestyle retailer Tang Tang Tang Tang, a name inspired by the opening bars of Beethoven’s Symphony No 5.  He also owns restaurants and clubs including China Tang in the Dorchester, London, and the China Club in Hong Kong and Singapore.
 
The 2017 Sunday Times Rich List - the definitive guide to wealth in the United Kingdom - is published on Sunday, May 7. The 160-page special edition of The Sunday Times Magazine is the biggest issue of the Rich List ever published since it first appeared in 1989. It charts the wealth of the 1,000 richest people in the UK. The list is based on identifiable wealth, including land, property, other assets such as art and racehorses, or significant shares in publicly quoted companies. It excludes bank accounts, to which the paper has no access.
-Who are the richest in fashion?
 
-Prime position for Primark owners at top of new fashion rich list.
 
-Budget fashion peps up the fortune of Christo Wiese.
 
-Sparkling profits edge Laurence and Francois Graff towards top.
 
The top 20 millionaires in fashion:
Fashion rank
2017
Name
2017 wealth
Wealth increase/
decrease
1
Guy, George and Galen Jr Weston and family
£10.5bn
Down £500m
2
Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay
£7.2bn
Up £200m
3
Christo Wiese
£4.62bn
Up £290m
4
Laurence and Francois Graff
£3.64bn
Up £440m
5
Francois-Henri Pinault and Salma Hayek
£3.437bn
Up £1.087bn
6
Sir Philip and Lady Green
£2.787bn
Down £433m
7
Stephen Rubin and family
£2.3bn
Up £540m
8
Mike Ashley
£2.16bn
Down £270m
9
Bernard Lewis and family
£2bn
Up £500m
10
Robert Miller and Princess Marie-Chantal and family
£1.58bn
No change
11
Christina Ong and family
£1.296bn
Up £126m
12
Philip Day
£1.15bn
Up £100m
13
Mahmud Kamani and family
£732m
Up £448m
14
Mark Fenwick and family
£730m
Up £30m
15=
Lord Alliance and family
£560m
Up £128m
15=
Lancelot Clark and family
£560m
Up £370m
17
Peter Simon and family
£530m
Up £20m
18=
John Hargreaves and family
£500m
No change
18=
Sir David and Lady Tang and family
£500m
New
20
Ray Kelvin
£468m
Down £16m
The Sunday Times Rich List 2017
If you want to know how the top 1% feel about what they earn read here: https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/may/03/how-do-britains-highe...