The 10 richest people you’ve never heard of

The Sunday Times Rich List, published earlier this month, reminds us that the UK is home to a plethora of very, very rich people. But, amongst the pop stars and inventors, actors and financial whizzkids, are a few surprises.

Here, Gentleman’s Journal presents the top ten British billionaires you’ve never heard of…

This couple become a little richer every time you order a Heineken, the world-famous beer that helped 62-year-old Charlene become a multi-billionaire. She inherited the brewery from her father, retaining a 25% stake. Her husband, meanwhile, is a banker with investments in online-mattress company Simba.

Having just taken over their father’s shipping company, 33-year-old sisters Katherine and Cecile Fredriksen are possibly the world’s most eligible sisters. Their self-made father, John, has spent a lifetime shipbroking and creating the world’s largest tanker fleet.

If you buy anything on an English high street, the chances are you’re boosting the fortunes of 75-year old Christo Wiese. The South African is the definition of a retail magnate, owning – amongst others – New Look, most of Virgin Active Gyms and over 20% of Iceland.

As a child, 49-year-old Denise Coates would help with her father’s bookmaking firm, eventually starting online-gambling giant Bet 365 from a portable office in a car park in 2001. She built it to become a £4.5 billion pound company with revenues bigger than the GDP of Slovenia.

London’s best-known streets are owned by a handful of fortunate families; the de Walden’s being one. With 92 acres of central London, including Harley Street, this family is set to only get richer. Currently, its 850 buildings are overseen by the 92 year-old Baroness; but this dynasty is going nowhere.

Whilst microbreweries have done well in recent years, the Grant Gordon family – who own Hendrick’s gin and Glenfiddich whisky – prove the big boys are still dominating. These fifth-generation brewers saw profit up by nearly 7% last year.

This couple didn’t just go to Specsavers: they built it. Now worth £1.6 billion, last year they sold over 400 million contact lenses and nearly 20 million pairs of glasses; yet they still live in the 4-bedroom house they bought 35 years ago.

This former plasterer, 73, set up Bloor homes in 1969 before acquiring the name and manufacturing rights of Triumph Engineering in order to create Triumph Motorcycles. He heavily invested in the famous Marque, making great use of celebrity endorsements on the way.

The Dundee-based Thomson family has held interests in media since the 1870’s; now dominating the Scottish publishing market with a stable of titles including The Beano.

Mackintosh hasn’t always been the mega theatre producer he now is – his early days were dogged by expensive flops. But it’s his partnership with Lord Lloyd Webber with “Cats” that anointed him as theatre royalty. Barely a curtain rises in the West End without Sir Cameron turning a small profit…