The wealthiest people in the South West have been revealed in the latest Sunday Times Rich List.
The newspaper has analysed the wealth of the 250 richest people in the country. There are 177 billionaires recorded in the UK this year - up six from 2021.
Inventor Sir James Dyson, 75, is now the second-richest person in the UK. His Wiltshire-based company had a record year last year with profits of £1.5bn on sales of more than £6bn - raising its value from £14.5bn to £21bn.
Entrepreneur Stephen Fitzpatrick, 44, who became the South West’s ninth billionaire, is now worth £1.3bn. He boosted his personal wealth by £665m after the New York float of his Bristol-based flying taxi venture Vertical Aerospace. His wealth includes a £603m stake in Ovo Energy, also based in Bristol.
Husband and wife Chris and Sarah Dawson, owner of the Plymouth-based discount store chain The Range, share a fortune of £2.25bn, up £200m on last year.
The Range saw sales leap by £352m during the worst of the Covid pandemic after his stores remained open as “essential retailers”. The hike in earnings to £1.35bn in 2020 led to after-tax profits for the Plymouth-headquartered company jumping to £145m last year - more than three times the £47m profit made the previous year.
Elsewhere engineering boss Sir David McMurtry, 82, saw his wealth drop by £650m in a year to £1.13bn, after profits slumped at Renishaw, the Gloucestershire engineering business he co-founded.
Earlier this month, the Wotton-under-Edge company cut its annual revenue and profit forecast after pulling its operations in Russia and uncertainty caused by Covid lockdowns in China.
The Sunday Times Rich List is compiled by Robert Watts and 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.
The complete list is available to the paper’s digital subscribers on Friday, May 20, and is in the print edition of the newspaper on Sunday, May 22.
The richest people in the South West in 2022
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