Midlands Rich List 2023: Some of the region's richest people and what they are worth

The list looks at the personal stakes of the region's wealthiest business leaders.

The most high-profile departure in the wider Midlands is the Wilkinson family following the collapse of their high street retailer earlier this year. The much-loved store started off as a hardware shop in Leicester back in 1930 and continued its links to the region.

But it slid into administration in August and a run of dividends taken by the discounting dynasty were not sufficient to meet the £110m entry level for this year's Rich List.

Bet365's Denise Coates and family again tops the rankings, with their value rising to £8.31bn. The undisputed queen of Britain’s gambling industry paid herself a salary of £213.4m last year and the Coates family also took home £93.3m of dividends from their online betting empire.

However, the Stoke-on-Trent-based group's turnover has remained flat at about £2.8bn for three successive years and the profits chalked up in 2021-22 were the lowest for 13 years.

The Midlands Rich List is compiled by business magazine Midlands Business Insider. It has a combined wealth of nearly £35 billion – up 5.4 per cent on the year despite the general downturn in the economy.

In second place on the list is another Staffordshire business, JCB's Lord Bamford and family, with wealth up from £5.9bn to £6.45bn.

Profits at the Rocester-based digger giant climbed to £557.7m on record sales of £5.7bn in 2022. More than 105,000 JCB vehicles and other machines were sold during the year.

Walsall-born Mike Ashley is in third place. The Frasers Group boss, who has a string of retail businesses including Frasers department store in Wolverhampton, saw his wealth jump from £3.63bn to £3.86bn.

Fifth place goes to Jean Jacques Murray and family, rising from £2.45bn to £2.73bn. Mr Murray is running the fire protection, air treatment hire, property and hotels empire assembled by his late father Tony Murray and including Wolverhampton-based Andrew Sykes, a manufacturer of heat pumps and air conditioning equipment.

Eighth is former Wolves chairman and property developer Sir Tony Gallagher with £1.27bn.

In ninth comes Caspar MacDonald-Hall and family with wealth up from £1bn to £1.17bn. His business London and Cambridge Properties at

The list includes those who are working in a business they either started themselves or inherited. It also include those still living in the area who have recently sold their main businesses but retain interests in other ventures.

The full list, compiled for Midland Business Insider by Robert Watts, an be seen online at insidermedia.com/news/midlands.