The Sunday Times Rich List 2025: Easdales Up Five To 111 In The UK
James and Sandy Easdale
Inverclyde's billionaire businessmen brothers Sandy and James Easdale have seen their estimated wealth grow by £10 million in the past year, according to the 2025 Sunday Times Rich List.
The tycoon siblings, who own Greenock-based bus firm McGill's and also have an extensive portfolio of property investments, are placed sixth among Scotland's richest people.
The Easdales, are also up 5 places from 2024 in the UK rich list to 111th, with an estimated worth of £1.46bn.
The list also reveals the largest fall in the billionaire count during the guide’s 37-year history with a peak of 177 in 2022 to 156 this year. The number of billionaires has dropped for four successive years, but this year's decline is the sharpest yet.
Anders Holch Povlsen, the Danish CEO of the international retail clothing chain Bestseller and the largest shareholder in ASOS, remains Scotland’s richest man.
The businessman, a devotee of rewilding who is also Scotland’s biggest landowner, was said to have seen an increase in wealth of £974m, bringing his net worth to £7.704bn.
Almost all of Scotland’s ten richest individuals saw their wealth increase in the past year, the Times estimated. The combined wealth in the 37th annual edition is £772.8 billion - a sum larger than the annual GDP of Switzerland.
Glenn Gordon and family, who own spirit’s company, William Grant and Sons, came second on the list. Their wealth was said to have risen by £974m to £6.73bn.
Third on the list were Sir Ian Wood and family. The industrialists and his family saw their fortune grow to £5.619bn, an increase of £779m. Lady Philomena Clark, widow of car showroom giant Arnold Clark, also appears on the list. Her family’s wealth was said to be £1.911bn. Author JK Rowling remains just outside the billionaire bracket, with a net worth of £945 million.
The Top Ten Most Wealthy People in Scotland, according to The Sunday Times Rich List
Anders Holch Povlsen - Wealth: £7.704bn
Glenn Gordon and family - Wealth: £6.398bn
Sir Ian Wood and family - Wealth: £1.914bn
Lady (Philomena) Clark and family - Wealth: £1.656bn
Mahdi al-Tajir - Wealth: £1.643bn
Sandy and James Easdale - Wealth: £1.46bn
The DC Thomson family - Wealth: £1.446bn
JK Rowling - Wealth: £945m
Sir Brian Souter and Dame Ann Gloag - Wealth: £805m
Lord Laidlaw - Wealth: £730m
Robert Watts, compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List, said: “The Sunday Times Rich List is changing. Our billionaire count is down and the combined wealth of those who feature in our research is falling. We are also finding fewer of the world’s superrich are coming to live in the UK.
“This year we were also struck by the strength of criticism for Rachel Reeves’s Treasury. We expected the abolition of non-dom status would anger affluent people from overseas. But homegrown young tech entrepreneurs and those running centuries-old family firms are also warning of serious consequences to a range of tax changes unveiled in last October’s budget.
“Our research continues to find a wide variety of self-made entrepreneurs building fortunes not just from artificial intelligence, video games and new technologies but also mundane, everyday items such as makeup, radiators and jogging bottoms.
"We know many of our readers find these people and their stories inspiring - especially the many who had tough starts or setbacks to their lives and careers.”
The list is based on identifiable wealth, including land, property, other assets such as art and racehorses, or significant shares in publicly quoted companies, however, it excludes bank accounts, to which the paper has no access.
Ranking number one in the UK list is Gopi Hinduja and the family of investors, with an estimated wealth of £35.304bn.