the Weston family have retained their title as the richest family in Ireland, For the eleventh year in a row, This is according to the 2019 Sunday Times Irish Rich List published yesterday.
The Sunday Times Irish Rich List surveys the wealth of the 300 richest individuals and families on the island of Ireland in a variety of areas including entertainment, sport, business, technology and construction.
The minimum wealth needed to qualify for this year’s 300 richest people in Ireland is €57m, up from €52m in 2018. There are 33 new entrants on this year’s list, with the combined wealth of the 300 standing at €87bn, an increase of more than 10% on last year’s total.
The Weston family’s food and retail empire now spans Europe, the Americas, Australia, China and southern Africa, with their combined wealth more than double that of second-placed Patrick and John Collison. The Weston family business includes household names such as Brown Thomas, Selfridges and Penneys, known internationally as Primark. Penneys alone employs 70,000 across 10 European countries and in the US, with 2018 seeing it open its first stores in Slovenia, Poland and Slovakia, contributing to a €512m increase in the Weston family’s wealth.
The Goodman family are the biggest movers on this year’s list, rising from 22nd in 2018 to 4th place on this year’s list, as they quadrupled their wealth to €2.455bn. Beef baron Larry started out as a sixth-generation cattle trader in 1954, and has since built ABP Food Group into a leading supplier of packaged beef and own-label petfoods to European supermarkets. The family have also invested heavily in property and are the largest landlord to Irish state agencies, earning €8m in annual rent from the Irish government.
Patrick and John Collison first entered The Sunday Times Rich List in 2013, with a joint fortune of €59m. Six years later the brothers are now worth €5bn, making John, 28, the world’s youngest euro billionaire. Originally from Tipperary and now living in San Francisco, 2018 was a bumper year for their online payments company, Stripe, which saw its value more than double since 2016 to €20bn. However they maintain a frugal lifestyle, with Patrick buying hardbacks second-hand from Amazon because they’re “really cheap”.
The report shows that media mogul Denis O’Brien saw his wealth fall by €1.8bn in the past year, and he faces a struggle to restore the fortunes of mobile phone network provider Digicel, in which he holds a 94% stake. Creditors have agreed to postpone the repayment of a $3bn debt, and the business will be selling assets and cutting a quarter of its staff to improve its financial situation.
Compiler of The Sunday Times Rich List, Colm Murphy said, "It’s been another bumper year for Ireland’s richest, who have welcomed a 17th billionaire to their ranks and seen their collective wealth reach new heights. This weekend’s Rich List gives an insight into the biggest winners in Ireland as a whole, as well as a breakdown of the country’s richest husband-and-wife duos, entertainment stars, hoteliers – and the 33 new entrants to this year’s list."
A list of the top 10 richest in Ireland can be seen below:
1. Hilary, Alannah and Galen Jr Weston and family (Retailing) - €11.932bn
2. Patrick and John Collison (Internet) - €5bn
3. John Dorrance (Investment) - €2.6bn
4. Larry, Kitty, Laurence and Mark Goodman (Meat, property and healthcare) - €2.455bn
5. Dermot Desmond (Finance) - €2.017bn
6. Denis O’Brien (Mobile phones and investments) - €2bn
7. Lady Ballyedmond and family (Pharmaceuticals) - €1.861bn
8. The Dunne and Heffernan families (Retailing and property) - €1.784bn
9. John Magnier and family (Bloodstock and investment) - €1.721bn
10. Deirdre, Mark and Aoife Lyons (Animal feed and biotechnology) - €1.7bn
