Glenfiddich family tops Scottish rich list

The distilling family responsible for Glenfiddich whisky have consolidated their position at the top of Scotland's rich list after their wealth grew by over £200 million in the last year.

Glenn Gordon and family run the William Grant & Sons distillery in Banffshire. Picture: Hemedia

Glenn Gordon and family, who run the William Grant & Sons distillery in Banffshire, have seen their profits increase to £260.2 million in 2016/17.

The business founded by Glenn Gordon’s great, great grandfather in 1887 is now valued at £2.4 billion.

As well as Glenfiddich, the company manufactures other famous Scottish labels including Grant’s, The Balvenie and Hendrick’s gin.

Moving up the list compiled by the Sunday Times into second place were John Shaw and his wife Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the pharmaceutical entrepreneurs.

They saw the biggest growth in personal wealth in the past year, with £606m of gains off the back of a sharp rise in the value of Biocon, the Bangalore-based pharmaceuticals business.

Ms Mazumdar-Shaw and her Glaswegian husband have a stake in the company valued at £1.69 billion, up £606 million on last year.

Ms Mazumdar-Shaw, 65, set up the company – which specialises in diabetes, oncology and autoimmune diseases – in the late 1970s.

It was sold to ICI in 1997, but Mr Shaw, 69, a University of Glasgow graduate, arranged $2 million of finance the following year to buy it back. The operation was floated in 2004.

In third place was Sir Ian Wood and family with the industrialist who built up a hugely successful oil and fishing business in Aberdeen doing well out of investments.

Sir Ian,75, stepped down from the day-to-day running of his oil services business, Wood Group, in 2012.

He has sold most of his stake in the business over the years. But he retains a 1.2 per cent holding worth £50.4 million.

According to the rich list compilers, Sir Ian’s JW Holdings fishing operation showed profits of £2.4 million in 2016 and it has assets of more than £20 million.

A family investment fund grew in value by some £75 million in 2017-18, which has played a part in an estimated £112 million rise in the Wood family fortune.