Page 14 - Yorkshire Rich List 2017

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Mike Gooley £370m
2016
Position: 13= £380m
The fall in the value of sterling a er the Brexit referendum cost Mike Gooley’s Trailfinders £12m in profits. The result was a pre-tax profit of £13.6m in the year to February 2017, compared to £22.4m the previous year.
But turnover was up, coming in at £652m from £612m. The business also increased its donations to the Mike Gooley Trailfinders Charity, handing over £3.7m to help medical charities, armed forces veterans charities and organisations which promote outdoor activities for youngsters.
Former SAS man Mike Gooley founded the successful travel agency Trailfinders in 1970.
Sheffield-born and now aged 81, he spent 12 years in the army, serving in Malaya, Oman, Borneo and Yemen. He intended to use his skills to set up an overland tour company to Africa and Asia. He could not see a gap in the market, so instead set up a travel agent to represent existing operators.
Along with two ex-army friends who later dropped out of the business leaving him as sole owner, he put together £1,000 and Trailfinders was born, initially operating from a single shop in Earls
Court Road. They specialised in backpacking tours to Delhi and Kathmandu.
The award-winning business grew rapidly, helped by high-calibre staff who were themselves enthusiastic travellers and o en graduates. Trailfinders is now the UK’s largest independent travel company with 29 travel centres across the UK. Mike Gooley’s son Tristan is a director.
Mike is based in Kensington with his wife, Fiona. He has four children. He also owns Bloomfield Lodge, set in the Daintree rain forest close to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. He is a substantial donor to the Conservative Party. He also supplied substantial funding towards the running costs
of the Second World War Experience Centre in Horsforth, Leeds.
He a ended St John’s Beaumont School in Berkshire and St George’s College Weybridge before going to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst and gaining a commission in the South Staffordshire Regiment. He joined the SAS in 1958, leaving the army 10 years later. He was awarded a CBE for his charity work in 2007.
WORLD VISION: Chairman of Trailfinders Mike Gooley and his wife Fiona, who are based in Kensington, London.
2016
Position: 19= £260m
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Richard Harpin £360m
Huddersfield-born Richard Harpin is the biggest winner in this year’s Yorkshire Post Rich List, thanks to HomeServe, the Midlands-based home maintenance and insurance firm which he founded in 1993, enjoying a stellar year.
The FTSE 250 firm’s share price rocketed to
a seven-year high in the spring when investors responded positively to a 20 per cent rise in profits. The business reported full-year revenues up by £150m to £785m.
In the UK the group – worth well over £2.4bn – took significant shareholdings in Checkatrade and Habitissimo, helping it speed up its plan to provide a single online source for home emergencies, repairs and improvements using the web and mobile apps.
HomeServe is successfully building up its overseas business – in particular in the United States where it now has three million customers on its books. The company recently announced
a £125m share placing to fund the purchase of Dominion Products and Services based in Virginia.
Despite selling five per cent of his stake in the company in 2010, reaping a reported £66m, Mr
Harpin, who was brought up in Birkby and went to the University of York, is still a significant shareholder. He is chief executive at HomeServe and commutes by helicopter from his home near York, ge ing up at 5am to make sure he gets a swimming session in before starting work.
With HomeServe, Mr Harpin, 53, has turned an emergency plumbing business backed by South Staffordshire Water into a multinational company. It was when he saw how difficult it was to get a reliable plumber in an emergency that he formulated his business model – an insurance product which would ensure a fast and efficient emergency plumbing service.
Within two years HomeServe was turning in profits, and Mr Harpin successfully marketed the idea to other water companies. HomeServe now also covers electrical wiring, pest control, home decorating, central heating boilers and glazing.
Mr Halpin is founder and non-executive director of Growth Partners which helps small consumer businesses achieve growth. He also created a badge for entrepreneurship for the Scout Association.
ANSWERING A NEED: HomeServe chief executive Richard Harpin in the company’s call centre in Walsall.
14 THE YORKSHIRE POST TUESDAY NOVEMBER 28 2017
www.yorkshirepost.co.uk
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