Huddersfield’s top tycoons are moving up the league table of Yorkshire’s wealthiest people.

Town chairman Dean Hoyle, Grange Moor-born Iceland Foods boss Malcolm Walker and Jonathan Thornton, former chairman of Linthwaite-based Thorntons & Ross, all feature in the latest Sunday Times Rich List.

Dean and his wife Janet, who sold greeting cards chain Card Factory in 2010 for a reported £350m, have moved up to 12th place in the Rich List for Yorkshire with a combined fortune of £284m. That compares with 17th position last year when the couple’s wealth was logged at £154m. The Hoyles come 329th on the UK rankings.

Mr Hoyle, who began by selling greeting cards from the back of a van, retains a stake in Card Factory, which last month announced plans for a stock market flotation, and will sit on the firm’s operational board following its stock market listing.

Grange Moor-born Malcolm Walker, founder and chairman of freezer foods retailer Iceland, has broken into the top 20 on the list at 17th with a personal fortune of £215m, placing him 435th in the national rankings.

Jonathan Thornton, who stepped down from his role at Thornton & Ross following the £221.11m sale of the pharmaceuticals firms to German giant STADA Arzneimittel AG last August, is 27th on the regional list with £150m. He’s equal 606th on the national list – sharing that spot with musician Eric Clapton, lyricist Sir Tim Rice and architect Lord Foster.

Also featured on the Yorkshire list at 13 – down one place from 2013 – is Alan Lewis, owner of Globe Mills at Slaithwaite and the man behind a £30m scheme to regenerate the property to provide facilities including an innovation centre, a doctors’ surgery, pharmacy and retail units, office and community space. His £270m fortune is £10m up on last year and puts him in 345th place UK-wide.

Globe Mills owner Alan Lewis
Globe Mills owner Alan Lewis

Retaining their place at the top of the regional list are brothers Eddie and Malcolm Healey, whose combined wealth stands at £1.3bn, down by £200m on 2013. Eddie made his fortune from property deals, the biggest of which – the sale of the Meadowhall shopping centre – made him £420m. Malcolm made £200m from building and selling Hygena Kitchens before repeating the process with a similar business in America, this time earning £800m from the sale.

Others on the Yorkshire list include Lord Kirkham and family, whose £1.15bn fortune was founded on his sale of the DFS furniture chain, and Tony Murray and family, whose £1.01bn fortune is tied up in businesses including London Security, a Leeds-based fire protection group which includes Elland-based fire extinguisher firm Nu-Swift.

Paul Sykes, who is backing UKIP’s European election campaign, ranks sixth in the Yorkshire Rich List with a personal fortune of £650m. He also made money from the sale of Meadowhall, but his Highstone property operation has further assets put at £253.7m in 2012-13.

The 20 richest in Yorkshire are worth £9.941bn collectively.

Philip Beresford, an expert on wealth, who compiled the list, said the Yorkshire rankings were still dominated by people who had made their fortunes in traditional sectors such as property and retailing, but added: “There are young people bubbling along who in 10 years time will grace these pages – people who are building their businesses online.”

He said those on the list had got there through “hard work, perseverance and self-belief” and were now using their money to “do lots of other things” such as investing in other businesses or – in Paul Sykes’ case – investing in political parties.

The 26th annual Sunday Times Rich List, which is published on Sunday, profiles the 1,000 richest individuals and families in the UK and the wealthiest 250 in Ireland. The list is based on identifiable wealth, including land, property, other assets such as art and racehorses, or significant shares in publicly quoted companies.

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