Meadowhall developer heads ‘rich list’

The Healey brothers, who made their fortune in property and kitchens, head the list, published by Yorkshire Business Insider, with a combined £1.4bn fortune.

The low-key Healey brothers, Eddie and Malcolm, have displaced furniture king Lord Kirkham at number one in the annual list, with the DFS founder dropping to number two.

Eddie sold his Parc Trostre retail park in Wales to M&G Real Estate for £156m in 2014, right at the top of the market. He built the successful Meadowhall Centre outside Sheffield and netted £420m when it sold in 1999 sale. There are nearly £403m net assets in the 2013 accounts of SPH 2011, the main Healey family company.

After Meadowhall, Eddie developed Centro, Europe’s largest shopping centre in the Ruhr district of Germany. A £550m refinancing of the 1.6 million sq ft centre in 2012 followed the purchase of a 50 per cent stake in 2011 by a Canadian pension plan for £250m.

The Parc Trostre deal should push Eddie and his side of the family to £950m. His son Mark recently moved into wind farms with the £250m purchase of assets in Scotland through his Blue Energy operation. Eddie’s brother Malcolm built and sold the Hygena Kitchens business in 1987 for £200m. He repeated the process in the US, selling for £800m.

Paul Sykes, who made his fortune developing Sheffield's Meadowhall Centre with Eddie Healey, is in third position. His personal sale proceeds from Meadowhall and his Highstone property group with £299m net assets in 2013/14 should take Sykes to £690m.

Sir Ken Morrison and his family, are down to number four, however, having seen their wealth fall £160m to £640m this year on the back of the Bradford supermarket chain’s woeful performance.

In spite of such healthy rises, the bottom line remains £40m to make it into the ranks of the top 100.

Doncaster Rovers shareholder Terry Bramall is the highest placed of the region’s football club owning entrepreneurs, in fifth position along with his family, followed by Huddersfield Town chairman Dean Hoyle, who with wife Janet is in ninth (£280m).

Women are still thin on the ground, with 11 in the top 100 – the same as last year – either singly or as part of a husband-and-wife team.

A breakdown of the 100 fortunes shows that there are 49 industrial fortunes in manufacturing, high tech or food processing, a rise of one on last year.

The complete Rich List is unveiled in the October edition of the Yorkshire Business Insider