Business Insider’s annual Rich List identified £45.6 billion of wealth shared between our region’s 50 most affluent individuals and families - up almost 9% on the previous year.
Whilst you will find familiar names in these rankings - such as Mohsin and Zuber Issa, the petrol retailing brothers who took control of Asda, or Fred and Peter Done, another pair of famous billionaire brothers, best known for their BetFred gambling empire - often it’s the new entries and lesser-known entrepreneurs and business leaders who are the most intriguing.
One debutant on the full list is the McMahon family who, ten years ago, bought Heinz’s 11-acre babymilk factory in Kendal for just £1, and now have a fast-growing infant nutrition venture.
Our region has also become home to a number of companies profiting from the boom in vaping. E-cigarettes have proven to be a divisive topic to many - and a sizable business opportunity for Phil Boyle and Mubarak Patel who oth appear in this year’s rankings.
Gone are the days when Rich Lists are dominated by finance, industry or property. Fortunes are now being made in more diverse and surprising ways. There’s some inspiration for ambitious entrepreneurs, whatever type of business they’re growing.
Although the entire list features 50 names, we have outlined just the 25 richest people in the North West for you below...
How the list was created
This list features entrepreneurs or business leaders who are either working in a company they either started themselves or inherited. Business Insider also include those still living in the area who have recently sold their main businesses but retain interests in other ventures.
Business Insider valued stakes in quoted companies in July 2025. Private companies were valued according to the ratios in their sectors or more generally where a sector rating was not evident, at around ten times their latest profit figures, which in many cases is more conservative than stock market ratings.
They deducted appropriate sums from dividends and company sales to reflect tax unless they were certain someone is not domiciled in the UK for tax.
25. Andrew Staley (2025: £530m, 2024: £443m)
Financial services: Fund management Fund manager Marlborough has had a bumper year, growing its assets under management from £11.2 billion to £18.1 billion. Staley, a former TSB bank clerk, set up the Bolton-based firm 40 years ago. Marlborough should now be worth around £543m and Staley owns 95% of the business. Taking account of a windfall from selling Bristol-based Parmenion Capital in 2016, dividends and other wealth should take Staley to £530m. | Marlborough Group
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26. Daren Whitaker (2025: £525m, 2024: £521m)
Property: Real estate development A political row has erupted over taxpayer-backed loans of £800m to Whitaker’s tower-block builder Renaker. Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has defended the funding, saying that the money has helped deliver the “high quality infrastructure that the city needs”. Whitaker set up Renaker in 2006 after spending nearly 20 years at Laing O’Rouke. Over the years the firm has delivered more than 8,500 homes and shaped the Manchester skyline with projects including Deansgate Square’s South Tower - the tallest building in the UK outside London. Whitaker has restructured his companies over the past year. XQ, his largest company, had £345.5m on its balance sheet before it was voluntarily wound up. Five other companies show a further £154.4m. | renaker.com