The West Midlands' wealthiest revealed in Sunday Times Rich List 2026
The owners of household names such as Bet365 and Gymshark feature once again in annual countdown of the UK's richest people
The heads of a digger manufacturer and a betting empire and the West Midlands' very own 'chicken king' are among the richest people in the UK.
The Sunday Times Rich List is out this weekend and once again features JCB's Lord Bamford, Bet365's owner the Coates family and Ranjit and Baljinder Boparan, the couple behind 2 Sisters Food Group.
The 38th annual countdown ranks the 350 richest people in the country and the above trio take up the top three spots among the West Midlands' wealthiest entrepreneurs.
Lord Bamford and family top the West Midlands rich list with an estimated wealth of £10.3 billion, a rise year on year from £9.45 billion.
Lord Bamford is the chairman of Rocester manufacturer JCB and has recently gained planning permission to build an observatory at his estate in the Cotswolds to showcase rural crafts and regenerative farming A Tory peer and political donor, he has retired from the House of Lords.
The Stoke-based Coates family, comprising father Peter and his children Denise and John, runs betting empire Bet365. They are said to be worth £9.72 billion, a rise from £9.44 billion in 2025's list.
Ranjit and Baljinder Boparan and family are the team behind 2 Sisters Food Group, the Black Country-based firm which supplies food such as poultry and ready meals to major supermarket chains.
They are worth £2.03 billion, according to this year's list, a climb from £1.01 billion in 2025.
Completing the top ten in the West Midlands are Caspar MacDonald-Hall and family (£1.65 billion), who own Kingswinford property group LCP, Staffordshire's Phones 4u founder turned investor and philanthropist John Caudwell (£1.56 billion) and Warwick developer Sir Tony Gallagher (£1.34 billion).
Tech and property entrepreneurs Sir Peter Rigby and his sons James and Steve run Stratford-based Rigby Group (£1.04 billion).
They are followed by international developers and investors the Richardson Family (£1.03 billion), which has a base in the Black Country as well as London, and Lord Edmiston (£897 million) who founded IM Group, which is now based in Solihull and has interests in finance, property and car dealerships.
Completing the West Midlands' top ten is Ben Francis (£800 million), the co-founder of Solihull fitness clothing and accessories brand Gymshark which he launched as a teenager from his parents garage in Bromsgrove.
Mr Francis also ranks as the wealthiest in the West Midlands among those under 40.
He is followed by Thomas Hartland-Mackie and family, who are behind Warwickshire-based wholesaler City Electrical Factors, with an estimated wealth of £684 million.
Completing the list of under 40s are Timothy Goodwin and family who run mechanical and refractory engineering firm Goodwin in Stoke (£524 million) and husband and wife team Dan and Melanie Marsden, the co-founders of Solihull-based underwear brand Lounge (£253 million).
Nationally, the 350 individuals and families who make up this year's list have a combined wealth of £783.5 billion, a sum larger than the annual GDP of Belgium. The figure represents about a quarter of the United Kingdom's total annual GDP.
Among the celebrity names appearing in the 2026 countdown are musicians Sir Elton John, Lord Lloyd-Webber and Keith Richards, author JK Rowling and F1 driver Sir Lewis Hamilton.
The minimum amount required to feature in the list has dropped to £340 million.
Robert Watts, compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List, said: "This year's list is a tale of two exoduses. One in six of the individuals and families who appeared on the list two years ago don't feature this time.
"Many foreign billionaires who have been living in the UK have also dropped out because they have moved away. We have also seen a sharp rise in the number of British nationals now resident in Dubai, Switzerland and Monaco.
"As UK nationals these people remain on our Rich List - wherever they now live. These two exoduses pose challenges for the UK economy and its public finances.
"Will more of the wealthy now set up or grow their ventures overseas and, in doing so, create fewer jobs here? How much tax, if any, will Rachel Reeves's Treasury be able to extract from those affluent Brits who have now left the country?
"This year's edition shines a light on fortunes made from artificial intelligence, driverless cars and crypto-currencies as well as baby milk, make-up, hoodies and other everyday items.
"We know many of our readers find those rags-to-riches stories of entrepreneurs who started out with little more than a laptop and an idea particularly inspiring."
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