Sussex Rich List: Richest entrepeneurs revealed in Insider's South East Rich List 2025

Insider has revealed its annual ranking of the wealthiest businessmen and women in the South East for 2025.

Several Sussex people have appeared on the list, with Brighton and Hove Albion owner Tony Bloom coming out on top with a net worth of £903m.

Topping the list overall are Ian and Richard Livingstone: billionaire brothers who made their multi-billion fortune in property, including hotels. The pair, who now reside in Monaco, are worth £6.45 billion, according to Insider.

These are all the Sussex people included in the South East Rich List:

• Tony Bloom – Brighton and Hove Albion owner – net worth £903m.

The Insider Rich List states: “Known in poker circles as ‘the lizard’ for his calm and cool-blooded demeanor, Bloom has recently completed his long-rumoured investment in Hearts. He paid just under £10m for a 29% stake in the Edinburgh football club. Bloom is much better known for his savvy stewardship of Brighton & Hove Albion. A stronger season saw the Seagulls finish eighth in the Premier League, and the club are now valued at around £650m - up £150m from a year ago. Bloom’s success at the club is attributed to clever use of data, skills he developed from his long-running gambling operation Star Lizard. On his watch the Albion has excelled at buying undervalued players on the cheap. Over the years he has also earned well from his conference business Regent Exhibitions and an extensive property portfolio. Five of the largest Bloom companies now show health of £85.3m - up £8.1m since last year.”

Christopher Whiteside – Chairman of Horsham-based business AJW Group – net worth £850m;

The Insider Rich List said: “Whiteside was 25 when he took over his family’s business. Back then the airplane parts outfit employed just 15 people. On his watch Horsham-based AJW Group has grown its global workforce to more than 1,000 and become an ‘Amazon of the aviation industry’, supplying Boeing and Airbus parts to more than 1,000 airlines. The UK end of Whiteside’s empire this year reported profits of £33m - but this accounts for less than half of the business. AJW should easily be worth £850m and personal assets add another £50m. Whiteside has held a private pilot’s licence for more than 15 years.”

• Graeme and Yvonne Brooks – Founders of Gatwick-based business Avtrade – net worth £550m;

The Insider Rich List reads: “Avtrade supplies more than 60,000 aircraft components to 650 airlines each year. Based near Gatwick Airport, the group also helps carriers lease, sell, loan and exchange planes. Graeme Brooks founded the business 40 years ago, initially supplying propellers for Boeing 737s. Over the years he has opened Avtrade offices in Dubai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Miami and the Chinese city of Guangzhou. Profits have soared by 27% to £70.1m over the past year. Brooks and his wife Yvonne still own all of the £550m business.”

• Ian Goodliffe – Director of Crawley-based business OCS – net worth £350m;

The Insider Rich List reads: “Goodliffe’s great-grandfather Frederick effectively founded OCS when he left home in 1900 with a ladder, pail and a pushcart to clean windows. Today the Crawley-based multinational employs more than 130,000 people around the world, handling a wide range of facilities management services, including catering, clearing, waste management and security. The group was sold to a US private-equity group in 2023. The terms of the deal were not made public, but OCS should have fetched at least £400m. Taking account of tax on the sale and other family wealth should put the Goodliffes at £350m.”

• Sarah Wickens – Director of Chichester-based business Store Property – net worth £228m;

The Insider Rich List states: “Wickens is managing director of Store Property. Her family’s Chichester-based group has a portfolio of more than two million square feet of retail, office and industrial property across London and the south east. Last year Wickens helped secure B Corp status for the business, the tag showing that a business meets high standards for transparency, accountability and environmental performance. Store Property is worth the £177.8m net assets on its balance sheet. Two more family companies show another £27.5m and we add another £23m for a run of dividends.”

• Duke of Richmond – The Goodwood Estate, Chichester – net worth £227m;

The Insider Rich List reads: “This entrepreneurial aristo’s new attraction is a 70-acre arts project featuring gallery exhibitions as well as outdoor installations. His 11,000-acre estate near Chichester is best known for launching The Goodwood Revival and the Festival of Speed, annual events appealing to those with higher-octane passions. The Goodwood Estate, which has been in his family’s hands for almost 330 years, also operates a hotel, leisure club, aerodrome, two golf courses and a farm. The Duke’s latest accounts put a net value of £227.1m on his property, aircraft, cars and other assets - up £12.3m since last year.”

• Jonathan Little – Director of Eastbourne-based Gardners Books – net worth £269m;

The Insider Rich List said: “Little and his family took a £6m dividend from their book distributor last year. Their Eastbourne-based firm supplies libraries, schools and bookshops with books, music and films. Exports now account for more than 50% of annual revenues. Profits have remained steady at £27.3m on sales of £489.3m suggesting the business is still worth at least £250m. A run of dividends and a helicopter operator add another £19m.”

• Chris Goodman – Founder of Shoreham-based Focus Group – net worth £212m;

The Insider Rich List reads: “Goodman and his business partner Ralph Gilbert have turned Focus Group into a major supplier of telecoms, IT and cyber security services to SMEs. The pair started the firm from an office in Hove with “just enough room for three desks and a kettle”. A share sale to private-equity group Hg last year valued the business at nearly £800m. Goodman and his family owned around a third of the shares at the time and retained a stake. He also earned well for an earlier private-equity deal, and a family investment company shows net assets of nearly £12m.”

• Andrew Brode – Owner of Brighton-based business Learning Technologies Group – net worth £290m;

The Insider Rich List said: “Last year Brode oversaw the £802.4m sale of Learning Technologies Group, the Brighton-based training and skills provider. He chairs the business and has kept hold of his £112.2m stake in the business. His other major investment is in RWS, a Buckinghamshire-based outfit that supplies translation services to clients including Coca-Cola, the US Navy and Honda. His 24.4% stake in RWS is now worth £77m. The shares have lost more than half of their value over the past year but Brode should still have picked up around £11m of dividends. Once asked by Forbes why he continued to work in his eighties, Brode said: “I get my kicks out of the way that businesses I’m involved with expand and flourish.”

• Ralph Gilbert – Founder of Shoreham-based Focus Group – net worth £200m.

The Insider Rich List states: "Gilbert has been pouring some of his fortune into Worthing Football Club. He owns 37.6% of the south-coast club but his wealth really stems from Focus Group, the Shoreham-based telecoms and IT consultancy. He owned around a third of the shares ahead of a stake sale to the private-equity group Hg that put an £800m price on the business. Gilbert set up the outfit in 2003 Chris Goodman and the pair have won work from the NHS, Brighton and Hove Albion, businesses including Molton Brown and a host of other clients. The workforce has grown to almost 1,000.”