No change at top of Scotland’s Rich List
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The family at the top of the famous annual Sunday Times ‘Rich List’ of Scotland’s wealthiest people has retained its place after seeing its wealth increase.
The Grant-Gordon family, which owns Glenfiddich single malt-producing William Grant and Sons, is now worth £2.37 billion, up from £2.16billion a year ago.
The Dufftown-based whisky firm, which is now in its fifth generation since William Grant founded the business in 1887, produced record profits in 2015 amid booming global demand for premium spirits.
The Banffshire whisky distiller posted record profits in 2015, with surging sales of the flagship Glenfiddich and Hendrick’s gin.
There was also no change at number two, with former Harrods owner Mohamed AlFayed and family, based at their Highland home at Balnagown Castle, and 65,000-acre estate near Invergordon, seeing their fortune hold steady at £1.7 billion.
Known locally as “Mohamed of the Glen” , Al Fayed often wears a kilt on his estate, which produces its own whisky.
Despite being the only billionaire in the Scottish top 10 to see his wealth fall in the past year, Mahdi al-Tajir, who owns bottled water firm Highland Spring, comes in at number three.
Mr al-Tajir has lost £65 million since a year ago but interests including his huge property portfolio and Highland Spring mean he still has an overall fortune of £1.67billion.
Bahrain-born al-Tajir has interests in metal, oil and gas trading in the UK and holds his property portfolio through Drift Properties. This boasted £227m net assets in 2015. His Scottish bottled water operation is hugely successful in the current climate with a profit of £4.3m on record sales of £103m in 2015.
Forth is Buckie-born businessman Trond Mohn and his sister, Marit Mohn Westlake, who made their fortune in Norway and are valued at £1.62 billion.
North Sea tycoon Sir Ian Wood and his family are ranked fifth wealthiest in Scotland, with a fortune of £1.6billion, up £160million from a year ago.
The famous Dundee newspaper publishing family of DC Thomson have placed at sixth, having diversified into new media, digital technology, retail, radio and television through investment interests.
Their wealth now stands at £1.285 billion.
With the largest increase in wealth this year, John Shaw and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw have now entered the realm of the billionaires as a result of their Bangalore-based biopharmaceutical firm Biocon. They boast £1.15bn to their names, earning a wealth increase of £530m in the last 12 months alone, largely off the back of the surging value of Biocon. They rank joint seventh position in Scotland.
Meanwhile, the family of the late new and used cars salesman Sir Arnold Clark, who died last month, aged 89, are ninth, with a £1.1billion.
Entrepreneur Jim McColl, who bought Grantown-based MacKellar Sub-Sea and associated firm Tritech Nairn out of administration two years ago completes the top ten with a fortune of £1.07 billion.
Overall, the ten richest in Scotland have a combined wealth of £14.715bn. Between them, their wealth has increased by 9% in the past twelve months.
Robert Watts, the Compiler of The Sunday Times Rich List 2017, said: “Our Scottish list of 10 billionaires shatters the myth this country’s economy runs on oil alone. Scotland is a place where 10-figure fortunes can be built from whisky, car dealing or even bottled water.
“This reflects the changing nature of wealth in 21st century Britain. Gone are the days when the Rich List would be dominated by finance, property or manufacturing. Greater diversity of entrepreneurial success is good news for the wider economy and ultimately us all.”
The richest in Scotland
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