Page 32 - Yorkshire Rich List 2017

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Irving Weaver and family £150m
2016
Position: 41 £145m
Housebuilder Irving Weaver owns Harrogate Town Football Club which is managed by his son Simon, who was a professional footballer until he took over at Harrogate at the age of 31. The team is semi-professional and plays in the National League North – the sixth tier of English football.
Simon Weaver played professionally as a central defender between 1996 and 2012, starting as an apprentice at Sheffield Wednesday. His clubs included Doncaster Rovers, Lincoln City, Scarborough, York and Tamworth.
Irving, 68, took over the reins at Harrogate in 2011, when Simon had already been manager for two years and the club needed funding.
A er taking over from Bill Fotherby, he commi ed to developing the CNG Stadium and two new stands were built in 2013, as well as a new clubhouse, bar, function room and corporate hospitality facilities.
Irving and his family own the Doncaster-based construction company Strata Homes.
As well as being a housebuilder the firm undertakes work on schools and offices. It was
founded by Mr Weaver’s bricklaying grandfather Oscar Weaver in Mexborough and built 2,500 council houses across the north of England before the Second World War.
Irving Weaver joined the company – then named O Weaver & Sons – in 1968. He rebranded it Strata in 2001. His son Andrew, 44, is managing director of the business, which concentrates its housebuilding operations in Yorkshire and the East Midlands. The Government’s Help to Buy scheme has given it a valuable boost.
Strata Homes has benefited from the buoyant state of the UK housing market. The company turned over £99m in 2015 and a further £46m in the first half of 2016. The group is building up its land bank with 12 new sites earmarked for development.
Mr Weaver le school with no qualifications. He worked on building sites while studying at Sheffield Polytechnic.
He did surveying until his father retired in 1977, at which point Irving took over as managing director, aged 28.
A CAREER BUILT: Irving Weaver, owner of Doncaster- based Strata Homes, left school with no qualifications.
2016
Position: 36= £150m
HEALTHY CUT: Jonathan Thornton made £150m when Thornton & Ross was sold in a £220m deal in 2013.
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Jonathan Thornton £150m
Thornton & Ross is one of the UK’s biggest manufacturers of over-the-counter medicines. It counts Corvonia, Setlers and Zoflora among its products.
Jonathan Thornton, who was the third generation of his Huddersfield-based family to run the business, made £150m in 2013 when it was sold in a £220m deal.
Thornton & Ross, which makes branded prescription treatments and healthcare products as well as household goods, was sold to German generic drug maker Stada.
The company is developing its presence in branded prescription products, particularly in the field of dermatology.
Following its acquisition by the Stada group Thornton & Ross has merged with Genus Pharmaceuticals and markets a range of branded medicines around the UK and in 80 overseas markets.
The company can trace its history back to 1922 when Nathan Thornton and Phillip Ross set up their business in a former dyehouse in
Milnsbridge, Huddersfield. In its first months trading the company turned over £16. It moved to its current location in Linthwaite in 1937.
The firm expanded and in the 60s and 70s began to supply leading supermarkets. New manufacturing facilities and laboratories were developed. The Thornton family bought out the Ross family in the 1980s.
Jonathan Thornton, 60, was appointed a director of the company in 1986. His father Ralph retired as chief executive a year later. Jonathan became chairman in 2001 and the company began an acquisition strategy, taking over many well- known brands including Setlers, Acriflex and Flexitol. He le the business on its acquisition by Stada, by which time Thornton & Ross employed 450 people.
Mr Thornton trained as an accountant in Leeds before joining the family firm. A keen footballer, he played for Huddersfield Amateurs at Elland. He also sails and is a real ale enthusiast.
He was named Business Person of the Year in 2010.
32 the magazine TUESDAY NOVEMBER 28 2017
www.yorkshirepost.co.uk
ADRIAN FORREST ADRIAN MURRAY