About half of these success stories are self-made, often having sprung from humble starts.
That includes Meadowhall developer Paul Sykes and DFS boss Graham Kirkham. And it includes the 40-something bosses of Twinkl, who are the top of the cash pile in Sheffield.
The rich, for our purposes, include those who are working in a business they either started themselves or inherited. We also include those still living in the area who have recently sold their main businesses but retain interests in other ventures.
We valued stakes in quoted companies in September 2024 according to prices prevailing in the Financial Times.
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 the stock market ratings.
We deduct appropriate sums from dividends and company sales to reflect tax unless we are aware someone is not domiciled in the UK for tax.
Here’s a list of South Yorkshire’s richest people in business.
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1. Jon and Susie Seaton - £490m
Their Sheffield-based Twinkl has continued to grow its turnover since a private equity deal last year valued the business at £500m. The Seatons started the teacher aid business at their home in 2010. Susie had been working in a children’s nursery and had found information hard to find. Twinkl now offers more than a million educational resources (Photo: NationalWorld) | NationalWorld
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2. Carol Healey and family - £886m
Property developer Eddie Healey teamed up with Paul Sykes to build Sheffield’s Meadowhall shopping centre. Healey, the brother of kitchen tycoon Malcolm Healey, died three years ago. His widow Carol and her children still own two retail parks. Their main investment company, SPH 2011, shows wealth of £222.4m (Photo: NationalWorld) | NationalWorld
3. Paul Sykes - £775m
Paul Sykes founded Sheffield's Meadowhall shopping centre with Eddie Healey and the pair went on to sell it for £1.17bn. Sykes had left school with no qualifications and initially worked as a tyre fitter before making money from car dealing and later moving into property. | National World/James Hardisty
4. Chris Rea - £344m
Rea recently said there is no piece of industrial equipment in the world his engineering firm cannot help make more reliable. Rotherham-based AES specialises in sealing devices used in pumps for largely the petrochemical, pharma and paper industries. Profits have climbed to £56.4m on record turnover of £260.3m. Rea owns 57% of the £500m operation and should have received £7.4m of dividends over the past year. | Chris Etchells