Who are Moray's richest people?
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
MORAY has seven multi-millionaires, including two billionaires, who are worth a total of £6billion.
This is according to the new edition of The Sunday Times Rich List, which is being published this weekend.
Top of the list for both Moray and Scotland are Glenn Gordon and family, whose £2.882bn wealth comes from spirits and distilling.
Amongst its business interests the family owns the Glenfiddich and Balvenie distilleries in Dufftown.
Second on the newspaper's list is the Norwegian entrepreneur Trond Mohn, who was born in Buckie during the Second World War.
THE RICHEST IN MORAY
1 (1) Glenn Gordon and family
£2.882bn Up £310m
Spirits
2 (2) Trond Mohn and Marit Mohn Westlake and family
£1.602bn Up £602m
Industry
3 (3) Lord Laidlaw
£791m Down £4m
Conferences
4 (4) Bill Robertson and family
£260m Up £55m
Construction
5 (6) Aaron and Tania Hillman and family
£177m No change
Spirits
6 (5) Joe Walker and family
£170m Down £12m
Biscuits
7 (new) The Urquhart family
£125m New entry
Clothing and drinks
Robert Watts, the compiler of The Sunday Times Rich List, said: "Many Rich Listers are this year nursing big losses due to the uncertainty over Brexit, turbulence on the stock market and the enormous change sweeping through our high streets.
"But more than half of our Scottish Rich List have seen their fortunes rise over the past 12 months – that’s a higher proportion than other parts of the UK.
"This may cheer those pushing for an independent Scotland, who will want to show that there is plenty more to the Scottish economy than North Sea oil."
There are 11 billionaires with a connection to Scotland, with a combined fortune of £17.245bn, up by £1.038bn in the last year. The total wealth of Scotland’s top 20 is £23.11bn, an 8% increase on last year’s £21.388bn
Glenfiddich is now run by Glen Gordon (62), who is the great-great grandson of its 1887 founder, William Grant.
The operation is valued at £2.7bn, with labels including Grant’s whisky and Hendrick’s Gin sending profits up by 14.4% to nearly £304m in 2017-18.
Previous dividends and interests add another £182m to the Gordon family wealth.
Sir Ian Wood rises up a rank in the Scottish top 20 to take second place this year thanks to a £51m increase in wealth. He retains a 0.9% stake, worth £33.7m, in Wood, which he founded and ran for 50 years before retiring in 2012.
Sir Ian also saw profits of £3.3m at his JW Holdings fishing operation which had £22.7m of assets in 2017. His pub and hotel interests have shown strong performances too.
Beyond the boardroom, Wood continues as Chancellor of Robert Gordon University, his 15th year, and the family’s foundation paid out £40m to charitable projects in northeast Scotland, other parts of the UK and Africa.
Wood isn’t the only big giver in the Top 20 however. Ranked sixth, siblings Trond Mohn and Marit Mohn Westlake donated £25m to Imperial College London last year, funding research into childhood diseases.
After selling their family company Framo, a manufacturer of cargo pumps, in 2014 for £1.1bn, the pair became renowned for their benevolent donations, and are Scotland’s biggest risers this year thanks to an increase in wealth of £602m.
A non-mover in fifth place, Bahrain-born Mahdi al-Tajir saw falling profits of £3.3m in 2017 at his Highland Spring mineral water operation.
Previously working as an ambassador to Britain for the United Arab Emirates, al-Tajir, 87, has built up his UK interests in industries such as metal trading, gas and oil.
His city-based Drift Properties has an extensive portfolio including a Perth and Kinross estate next to the Gleneagles hotel, and despite his £10m decrease in wealth, his three companies have assets totalling £266m.
Up by £49m this year, the Thomson family continues the success of the Beano, the world’s oldest weekly comic, by taking it on a 40 theatre UK tour with the infamous Dennis the Menace and hound Gnasher finding their voices in a musical.
A Minnie the Minx television series is also in development. Originally a family shipping firm, the Dundee-based publisher is responsible for a number of publications including the Press and Journal and has assets worth £1.26bn.
From bus conductor to knight of the realm, Sir Brian Souter and sister Dame Ann Gloag saw their stake in transport operation Stagecoach rise by £37.2m to £243.4m in the last year.
Having founded the company in the 1980s, the siblings have seen their wealth increase by £50m in the last year ranking them 12th in the Scottish Rich List.
Souter keeps his wealth in Souter Investments, with assets of £315.1m in 2017-18. His sister, who became a Dame for her philanthropy, operates firm Gloag Investments Group, which showed £112.6m of assets during the same period.
Despite the Government barring Stagecoach from three rail franchises this year, accusing the firm of breaching pension rules, the siblings continue to profit and have given £12m to charity in support of social, medical and religious causes between them.
Outside of the billionaires, Ian Taylor, who chairs the world’s largest independent oil trader, Vitol, is Scotland’s second highest riser this year with an increase of £565m in wealth.
Taylor, 63, stepped down last year as Chief Executive of the firm, which trades 7m barrels of oil a day. Whilst his holding in the company is undisclosed, as little as a 5% stake in the organisation would have a value of £750m.
THE RICHEST IN SCOTLAND
1 Glenn Gordon and family
Spirits
£2.882bn Up £310m
2 Sir Ian Wood and family
Oil services and fishing
£1.763bn Up £51m
3 Mohamed Al Fayed and family
Retailing
£1.7bn No change
4 John Shaw and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
Pharmaceuticals
£1.689bn Down £67m
5 Mahdi al-Tajir
Metals, oil and water
£1.66bn Down £10m
6 Trond Mohn and Marit Mohn Westlake and family
Industry
£1.602bn Up £602m
7 The Thomson family
Media
£1.401bn Up £49m
8 Philip Day
Fashion
£1.2bn No change
9 The Clark Family
Car sales
£1.178bn Up £3m
10 Jim Mellon
Property and finance
£1.1bn Up £100m
11 Jim McColl
Engineering
£1.07bn No change
12 Sir Brian Souter and Dame Ann Gloag
Transport
£875m Up £50m
13 Lord Laidlaw
Conferences
£791m Down £4m
14= Joanne Rowling
Novels and films
£750m Up £50m
14= Ian Taylor
Commodities and fashion
£750m Up £565m
16 Sir Tom Hunter
Retailing and property
£607m Up £27m
17 The Duke of Sutherland
Art and land
£585m No change
18 Rick Smith and family
Food distribution
£561m Up £43m
19 Alastair Salvesen and family
Transport, plant hire and fisheries
£500m Down £20m
20 Sir Angus and Flure Grossart and family
Finance
£446m Up £159m
