Page 27 - Yorkshire Rich List 2017

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Andrew Marr £175m
2016
Position: 44= £125m
The Hull-based sea-to-market fish company that bears Andrew Marr’s name is an increasingly successful business, turning over more than £505m a year. The firm is involved in fisheries, fish processing and fish trading and made a pre-tax profit of more than £16m in 2016, with assets of more than £82m.
Mr Marr, 75, is chairman of the business – Andrew Marr International – the majority of which is owned by him and his family, who have interests in other marine and fishery businesses.
Andrew Marr International is split into a number of subsidiaries that look a er global fish trading, fishing vessel management, importing and distribution, frozen meat and poultry, cold storage and fresh fish delivery. The group also operates a fleet of fishing vessels based in Aberdeenshire.
The company’s products are sold in markets in west Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe as well as the UK. It has operations in the US, Russia and Norway and employs around 250 people in the UK and Europe.
The Marr family has been involved in the
seafood industry for more than 100 years. The company’s headquarters is in Hessle. The original family business, J Marr and Son Ltd, was founded by James Marr in 1902, although it can trace its roots back to the 1870s when Joseph Marr bought his own fishing boat.
Andrew Marr’s three sons, Alexander, Christian and Sebastian, are involved in the running of the business. Other companies in the family’s portfolio include North East Fisheries and North West Fisheries.
‘The Marr family has been involved in the seafood industry for more than 100 years.’
NET GAINS: Andrew Marr is the chairman of sea-to- market fish company Andrew Marr International.
2016
Position: 32 £170m
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Michael Cannon £170m
It is ironic that for all his wealth and business success, Michael Cannon will be remembered as the owner of the hotel where Jeremy Clarkson punched a Top Gear producer.
Up until last year he owned the magnificent 18- room Simonstone Hall hotel at the foot of Stag’s Fell near Hawes. The hotel was formerly the home of Lord and Lady Wharncliffe, descendants of the Stuart royal line. Michael Cannon bought it in 1996, but it was acquired last year by a private investor trading as Simonstone Hall Ltd.
The hotel is obviously proud of its notoriety a er the Clarkson incident. A plaque has been erected to mark the spot where the punch was thrown.
Michael Cannon has a passion for grouse moors and owns some of the finest in the UK. His love
of grouse moors started in 1996 with the joint ownership of Stags Fell moor . He also developed a passion for upland regeneration and bought
the neighbouring 6,000-acre High Abbotside Moor, planting a quarter of a million shrubs and trees and encouraging the rare black grouse. He also owns Wemmergill Moor in County Durham.
Food and pubs have been the source of wealth for Bristol-born Michael Cannon. He made £40m from the sale of the US Fuddruckers hamburger business in 2010.
He had previously made an estimated £170m from the sale of four pub chains. In 2004 his company, SDA Ltd, bought the 152-pub estate of Dorset pub operator Eldridge Pope for £42m plus £40m of debt. Under his leadership failing sites were stripped out and refurbished. Two years later he sold it to Marstons for £155m.
He cashed in to the tune of £70m when he sold the Magic Pub Company to Greene King in 1996 and also when he sold Morrells of Oxford to the same pub company for £67m in 2002. In 1993 he sold his Devenish pub company – of which he was chairman – to Greenalls, making a £26m profit.
He invented pub brands including Rat and Parrot, Hungry Horse and Pickled Newt.
Aged 78, he is currently spending £15m on the 17,000 acre Wemmergill Moor estate. He bought the estate in 2006, paying £5.25m to the Earl of Strathmore.
RAISE A GLASS: Michael Cannon has made an estimated £170m from the sale of four pub chains.
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TUESDAY NOVEMBER 28 2017 the magazine 27