Sunday Times rich list: Founders of £500m Sheffield publisher Twinkl debut in annual guide to UK's richest

A Sheffield couple who launched a £500m publishing business from their bedroom have made it on to the ultimate measure of success - the Sunday Times rich list.

Jon and Susie Seaton set up educational publisher Twinkl in 2010 after Susie, who was working as a pre-school teacher, struggled to find educational resources online. 

Today the firm, based at Wards Exchange on Ecclesall Road, has more than 1,000 employees.

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The Seatons join Sir Elton John, Andrew Lloyd-Webber and David and Victoria Beckham in the ‘definitive guide to wealth in the UK’. The minimum entry in the 350-strong list this year is £350 million: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/sunday-times-rich-list

The richest people in Yorkshire and the Humber are Malcolm Healey and family, owners of Wren Kitchens. They lost £99 million this year to leave a collective wealth of £1.501 billion. Wren Kitchens is his third successful kitchen company.

Supermarket heirs - Andrea Shelley, William Morrison and Eleanor Kernighan - retain their position as the fifth richest family in Yorkshire with a fortune of £933 million. The children of Sir Ken Morrison did well from the private equity takeover of the Morrisons supermarket chain this year.  

The collective wealth of Duty Free Shoppers Group co-founder, Robert Miller, and his daughter Princess Marie-Chantal, amounted to £1.429 billion this year. 

However the duo’s wealth fell by £154 million - the largest drop in their region for two years running. The duty free shopping tycoon’s daughter is married to the new head of the Greek Royal Family. 

DFS founder, Lord Kirkham, from Doncaster, and his family were the third wealthiest people in Yorkshire with a collective £1.14 billion. 

Poor ‘O’ level results forced Kirkham to ditch his dream of making it in the RAF. He learned to make furniture instead - the beginning of DFS. 

University of Sheffield graduate Denise Coates is also in the rich list. The Bet365 founder and her family were 16th wealthiest in the UK last year with a total worth of £8.80bn. The firm is based in Stoke-on-Trent.

But Meadowhall developer Paul Sykes is absent this year. Last year he was in 226th place with a fortune worth £775m.

Robert Watts, compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List, said: “This year’s Sunday Times Rich List suggests Britain’s billionaire boom has come to an end. Many of our home-grown entrepreneurs have seen their fortunes fall and some of the global super rich who came here are moving away. 

“Thousands of British livelihoods rely on the super-rich to some extent. We’ll have to wait and see whether we have now reached peak billionaire, and what that means for our economy. 

“These may be harder times to create wealth, but The Sunday Times Rich List continues to unearth entrepreneurs building fortunes in diverse and often surprising ways. This year’s new entries include people who have made money from artificial intelligence and virtual worlds as well as plumbing supplies and teaching aides.  

“We know many of our readers find such people — especially those from humbler backgrounds — very inspiring.” 

The 2024 Sunday Times Rich List is the definitive guide to wealth in the UK. It charts the wealth of the 350 richest people in the UK.

The list is based on identifiable wealth, including land, property, other assets such as art and racehorses, or significant shares in publicly quoted companies. It excludes bank accounts, to which the paper has no access.