Property tycoon Luke Comer and his brother Hertfordshire-based Brian, originally from Galway, have come a long way since starting out in business together as plasterers back in 1971. Taking account of strong dividends, past salaries, tax and other interests we put Harris and his family at £965m. A successful horse owner and trainer, Harris has substantial racing assets too. Harris and his family also own 72 per cent of the £350m spread-betting operation Spreadex, which has paid out more than £75m of dividends in the past five years. Bourne should now easily be worth £1.4bn, raising the value of the Harris family’s stake to more than £600m. He decided to go into the business himself, founding Bourne with the late David Allen. It was founded in 1964 after a young accountant, Peter Harris, liked the look of the figures he saw when he was sent to audit a caravan park. Every year more than 4 million families visit a Butlins, Warner Leisure or other holiday destination owned by Bourne. Profits came in at a record £155.1m on sales of over £1bn in 2017. Private assets, including his property - and a £35m dividend in 2015-16 - keep him at £1,180m.īourne Leisure, the Hemel Hempstead-based leisure operator is in fine fettle. With values in the sector holding up well Mackintosh’s business empire should still be worth £1bn despite the profits fall. His big break came in 1981 when he produced Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats, which became the hit of the season and later one of the longest running musicals on both sides of the Atlantic. He later graduated to stage manager on several touring productions, becoming a London¬based producer in the 1970s. A former stage hand at the Theatre Royal in London’s Drury Lane, Mackintosh was raised in Cuffley near Welwyn. But turnover rose sharply to a record £168.3m while assets also hit a record £208.6m on the back of packed Hamilton audiences and tours of old favourites such as Les Miserables and Miss Saigon which he has produced. As a result profits at his main company Cameron Mackintosh Ltd fell from £23.3m to £18.1m in 2017-18. The cost of the Victoria refurb to the end of March 2018 was more than £61 million, more than double the original £30 million cost. West End smash Hamilton helped lift sales at Sir Cameron Mackintosh’s theatre company in 2017-18 but the cost of a refurb of the hit musical’s home at the Victoria Palace Theatre cut profits sharply. The falling Sports Direct share price justifies clipping Ashley back to £2.01bn this year - but his wealth remains well down on the £3.75bn level he reached in 2014. Other windfalls from the sale of leases he owned on 32 Sports Direct stores raised nearly £87m. He pocketed £929m in one day when he floated Sports Direct on the stock market in 2007 and another £314m of sales in 20. Ashley started Sports Direct in 1982 with a £10,000 loan from his parents. Ashley’s 61.46 per cent stake now has a value of £897m - down £172m on a year ago. This has pushed the value of the company down to £1.41bn, well down on the peak of nearly £5bn reached in early 2014. Sports Direct’s performance remains groggy, with profits down 72.5 per cent at £77.5m in 2017-18. To add to his workload, Ashley has also bought the ailing House of Fraser department store chain from administrators. Before Christmas he issued a stark warning that the British high street risked being smashed by weak consumer spending. In recent years Ashley has been distracted from his day job running his sports retailing juggernaut by a medley of shareholder revolts, a bruising select committee hearing probing his company’s working conditions. Hertfordshire-based Ashley may not need a fast sale of the premiership strugglers, but the former squash coach is hardly back at the top of his game. Mike Ashley’s Newcastle United is still up for sale after spurning an approach from a Middle Eastern-backed consortium last year. One might speculate that this diversity of talent is one reason why Hertfordshire’s unemployment rate of 3.7 per cent is well below the UK national rate of 4.6 per cent. There are 12 in property or construction, reflecting perhaps the high house prices locally. Leading the way are the 15 in industry and computers, the same as last year. It means that all the county’s eggs are not in one industrial basket so to speak. The business wealth in Hertfordshire is drawn from all spheres, which is also gratifying. We still only have one aristocrat here in the Marquess of Salisbury courtesy of his Hatfield estate and magnificent art treasures. Of the 50 names, 41 made their own fortunes (one more than last year), which does auger well for some degree of social mobility and shows budding entrepreneurs that they can indeed stand a good chance of making serious wealth for themselves (and therefore for the UK plc too) through dint of hard work, skill and a good idea. Celebrities aside, the Hertfordshire Life Rich List is still very much a meritocratic ranking.

Dixon family surf boards