Four linked to Guernsey in Sunday Times Rich List

The wealth of the richest 250 people and families in Britain is being published by the newspaper online today, ahead of the publication of its special edition on Sunday.

Sir Frederick Barclay, his family, and the family of his late twin brother, Sir David, are reported as sharing a fortune of £6.205bn, up £205m. from last year, which ranks the lease owners of Brecqhou at number 25 in the list.

The Barclay family own the London-based Daily and Sunday Telegraph newspapers, The Spectator magazine and the online retailer Very.

Three other entries are listed as being Guernsey-based, including Douw Steyn, the founder of Compare the Market, who is listed as being worth £2.1bn.

Robert Watts, who works year-round to produce the list for the newspaper, told the Guernsey Press that the Steyn family had been included as a Guernsey entry because the insurer’s parent company is Guernsey-domiciled.

Specsavers founders Doug and Dame Mary Perkins, and their family, are shown as being worth £1.33bn, while La Grande Mare developer and Bristol City FC owner Steve Lansdown is said to be worth £1.237bn – a drop of £123m. on 2021’s valuation.

The Perkins’ listing is an increase of £130m. on last year, contrasting with their reported drop in wealth between 2020 and 2021 of £600m.

However, that drop was explained in the 2021 magazine entry as being due to an adjustment to the newspaper’s assessment.

‘This year we have reset the Perkins’ family fortune at £1.2bn in light of detailed information we have received about the localised ownership of the Specsavers store estate,’ it said at the time.

The optical retailer has a business model based on 50% ownership of each store by the joint venture partners who run it.

‘I’m a big fan of the Perkins family,’ said Mr Watts, a former Jersey resident.

‘It’s a marvellous story for lots of reasons. They came to the Channel Islands for the right reasons, through Dame Mary’s local connections.

‘Some people on this list are not the super yacht class and remain plugged in, and they would fit in to that category.’

The latest figures on the Specsavers website shows revenues for the global group, which is still privately owned, of £2.73bn in the year to 28 February 2021, £1.42bn of which came from its UK operations. No profit figure is published.

‘The company is not terribly transparent,’ Mr Watts said, ‘but the Perkins also feature prominently on our list of the biggest contributors of tax in Britain.’

Mr Lansdown and Specsavers did not wish to comment. Sir Frederick Barclay was also approached for comment.

The list can be found at thesundaytimes.co.uk/richlist

Source: The Sunday Times