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National
Charles Gray

How Leeds born Bill Adderley went from living on a council estate to becoming one of the richest people in the country

A Leeds billionaire who grew up on a council estate in the city has featured on the Sunday Times Rich List.

The annual rich list, released by the newspaper, features 250 of the wealthiest people in the country - a number of which hail from Yorkshire.

From fire extinguishers and chemicals to supermarket chains and furniture shops the richest people in the county have made their millions, and some billions, through a variety of different ways.

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But each person on the list has made their money by hard work, shrewd business decisions and sometimes, by taking a little risk.

One of those on the list is the Leeds-born billionaire William Adderley and the rest of his family, who are reported to be worth £1.789bn - down £320m from last year.

Known as 'Bill', Mr Adderley was born on a council estate in Leeds in 1948 and managed a Woolworth's store for a number of years before leaving the company in 1979.

A boyhood fan of Leeds United, Mr Adderley set up Dunelm with his wife Jean when they started selling curtains on a Leicester Market stall in 1979.

Will Adderley (Dunelm)

In 1984, they opened their first home furnishings store, calling it Dunelm, and the company now has 140 stores across the UK as well as an e-commerce business.

Mr Adderley retired from the company aged 50 and left the running of the business to his son Will. His other son, Jonathan, was not involved in Dunelm, due to only one sibling being able to lead the company.

In 2013 it emerged that Mr Adderley had become one of the biggest shareholders in Marks and Spencer, having built a stake valued at £250 million. He later sold most of his shares and invested a stake in the Bradford-based supermarket chain Morrisons.

Mr Adderley, who is life president of Dunelm, said he was a regular reader of the Sunday Times Rich List.

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Speaking to the Leicester Mercury when he was included in the list in 2014, he said: "I'd rather I weren't in it, but there's nothing I can do about it.

"I have been working in shops for 50 years. I'm a big retail person. I follow it in the same way people follow football. It's like an obsession."

Mr Adderley is known to have a number of lavish properties in a number of countries and collects luxury cars, antiques and art.

His family's firm also donated £500,000 to the Conservative party in 2019 and he is a Brexit supporter.

Other names from Yorkshire to feature on the list include the CEO of the Ineos chemicals group Jim Ratcliffe (worth £6.33bn) and the owner of Nu-Swift, a Leeds manufacturer of fire extinguishers, Tony Murray (worth £2.3bn).

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