The South West’s rich are feeling the pinch as never before. This, the second annual South West Business Insider Rich List, shows that the total wealth of the Top 100 business tycoons and estate owners came in at just over £10bn.
It may sound a healthy enough figure – and shows that the region can no longer be regarded as a backwater of the British economy – but last year, when we looked at just 50 names their total wealth was nearly £9.4bn. That compares with a combined top-50 figure this time around of £8.4bn. So the economic pinch has so far cost our region’s rich a cool £1bn or so.
This year, the list is headed again by Sir James Dyson, perhaps Britain’s most successful inventor, who has actually made the transition to industrial entrepreneur through the huge success of his Dyson vacuum cleaner here and abroad. With nearly half the British market and a third of the all-important US market, Dyson appears to be cleaning up. But in fact his latest profits for 2006 show a sharp fall from over £103m to £56.7m. As a result he loses his status as the South West’s only billionaire and we trim him back to £760m.
For this second, expanded list covering the region, we have kicked out celebrity wealth and rock royalty like Sting to concentrate on those who work here and create wealth here. But there are still some famous present. Prince Charles is in at number three, on the back of the huge impact the Duchy of Cornwall has made locally. Other high profile people on the list include artist Damien Hirst, who lives in Gloucestershire and has a huge studio locally. And we cannot ignore the Rick Stein effect on Padstow, often nicknamed Padstein, for all the enterprises he has set up in the fashionable Cornish fishing village.
The South West’s rich include a sizeable slice of inherited and aristocratic wealth. But they are here not due to an accident of birth but because their estates and associated activities are vital locally. 26 of the 100 have inherited, among them a Duke (Beaufort) and a Marquess (Bath).
Perhaps the nearest to a local celebrity is entrepreneur Deborah Meaden, who has made her fortune through caravan parks and is well known from the Dragons’ Den TV series. She is also one of just nine women in our Top 100, which really is a poor showing. Similarly, we only have one person from the Asian community – Tom Singh, founder of the New Look fashion chain.
But one of the great strengths of the South West’s economy is its relative diversity. Our 100 rich also follow this pattern, though property still dominates. There are 26 millionaires who have made their fortunes in property, land and construction. Encouragingly, industry gets a good look in with 19. Indeed it may be said that the local niche industries are bucking the gloom. Sales and orders are strutting at companies as diverse as Sunseeker, the Poole-based luxury boat builder, and Numatic, the Chard-based manufacturer of the ubiquitous Henry vacuum cleaner.
The Bristol-Gloucestershire area is the centre of rich activity, with 39 of our Top 100 based there. But as Cornwall’s role as London’s playground grows, so we are confident in predicting that future South West Business Insider Rich Lists will have more representation there. Assuming there are any rich left to track as the grim times roll on. But for the real thing this year, read on for the rules of who qualifies for this list and the 100 entries that follow.
To read the full Rich List, click here to purchase the September issue of South West Business Insider.