Some of the richest people in Scotland have links to the north and north-east, The Sunday Times Rich List 2022 has revealed.
The ten top billionaires topping the Rich List have a combined total of £23.054 billion, despite half of their fortunes falling in the last year.
More than a quarter of that grand total belongs to fashion tycoon Anders Holch Povlsen.
Many included in this year’s top ten billionaires would be familiar names to residents in the north and north-east.
Anders Holch Povlsen
Number one on the list, Holch Povlsen is Scotland’s wealthiest person with a fortune of around £6.5 billion. He is also one of the few whose fortune increased over the past year.
Owner of the Danish fashion retailer Bestseller, the billionaire is Scotland’s biggest private landowner boasting over 220,000 acres of land.
The 49-year-old, also holding a 25% stake in popular fashion retailer Asos, now owns 12 Highland estates.
Holch Povlsen lives near Kingussie in the Cairngorms with his wife Ann. They are committed to rewilding the land and have been opposed to the development of the Space Hub in Sutherland which is near to their property.
Glenn Gordon
Chairman of the Moray-based distiller William Grant and Sons, Glenn Gordon is the second richest person in Scotland.
Claiming a fortune of £3.395 billion, Mr Gordon saw his fortune drop by £200 million pounds this year.
The family firm owns brands including Glenfiddich and Grant’s whisky, Drambuie, Hendrick’s gin and Sailor Jerry rum.
Sir Ian Wood and family
Ranked as the fourth wealthiest person in Scotland this year, Aberdeen oil tycoon Sir Ian Wood was the only person in the top ten who saw no change to his fortune of £1.819 billion over the past year.
Sir Wood, aged 79, was born in Aberdeen and is the founder of the Wood Group. He formed the multinational engineering business after transforming his family-owned fishing business.
He has since retired from his role as chairman of the group back in 2012 and served as its chief executive from 1967 to 2006.
The Thomson family
The Thomson family, owners of DC Thomson, are seventh on the list with a wealth of £1.5 billion.
DC Thomson publishes newspapers and magazines and has also diversified into new media, digital technology, retail and television interests.
The family firm owns newspapers The Press and Journal and Evening Express.
Trond Mohn and Marit Mohn Westlake
Born in Buckie, the brother and sister who made their fortune in Norway are sitting at number ten on this year’s list.
Valued at £1.245 billion, the family who made their fortune in industry are known as great philanthropists in Norway.
‘Difficult’ business environment
The annual list reveals the wealth of the 250 richest people in the UK. However, many who made Scotland’s top ten spots lost some of their fortune this year.
Robert Watts, the compiler of The Sunday Times Rich List, said: “Scotland’s richest people have fared less well than those elsewhere in the UK, with half of this year’s ten Scottish billionaires seeing their fortunes fall over the past year.
“The combined wealth of the country’s 10 billionaires is still up, at nearly 2 per cent on 2021.
“As the economy continues to work through the damage wrought by the pandemic, surging inflation and the disruption to markets caused by the war in Ukraine are now making the business environment difficult.”
Conversation