The family bought London department store The Westons received a £38.5m dividend in November 2017 – almost triple the previous year’s – after annual sales at Selfridges reached record highs. Operating profit jumped 18% year on year to £180m in the year to 28 January, and sales grew 16% to £1.6bn. Deep Fryers. Burger Presses. History Bread route. Turnover at the high-end retailer's Irish operations was up 38pc to £199.7m (€226.7m). As W. Galen Weston took over as the new head of Loblaw Companies Limited in 1972, the company faced a stark reality — either reinvent itself or go broke. Hilary Weston (76), a former model from Dublin with a sharp eye for retail, is married to Galen Weston, Canada's second-richest man and billionaires' club veteran.The publicity-shy family owns a vast retail portfolio that includes Brown Thomas and Arnotts in Ireland, the Loblaw grocery chain in Canada, the high-end British chain Selfridges, and Fortnum & Mason. Ireland’s richest family, the Westons’ impressive retail portfolio stretches from the value end of the high street to some of luxury’s biggest names. His son Garry took over the larger British end, while the youngest of nine children, Galen, was sent back to Canada to rescue the floundering Loblaw grocery chain, which the family took over several decades prior.At the time, Galen had been tending to other ventures in Ireland. The Westons also own a 46pc stake in Loblaw, Canada's biggest grocery chain, which saw its shares increase almost 4pc in the past year, which is valued at €20.7bn. Consumer Survey Results - Win over UK Shoppers You want to delight your customers. At George Weston Ltd, Galen Sr has passed the torch to son Galen Jr (44), who is married to Alexandra Schmidt, heiress to the Bata shoe fortune. Choice Properties - A Third Strategic Operating Segment A look at how Choice Properties became the third operating segment of George Weston Limited. The family behind the likes of Selfridges and Primark are the only billionaires in retail who have landed a spot in the UK top 10 for this year’s Sunday Times Rich List.This is an additional £30 billion compared to last year, when the Westons were ranked 13th on the UK rich list.Iconic luxury retailers Fortnum & Mason and Selfridges are owned by Wittington Investments, as is furniture retailer Heal’s.Wittington Investments also has a majority stake in Primark parent company AB Foods.Fortnum & Mason chairwoman Kate Hobhouse is the sister of AB Foods chief executive George Weston.Meanwhile, their cousin Alannah Weston is the chair of the Selfridges Group – having been in the role for a year after replacing her father and family patriarch Galen Weston.The Selfridges Group consists of the eponymous department store in the UK, Holt Renfrew in Canada, de Bijenkorf in the Netherlands and both Brown Thomas and Arnotts in Ireland.The title of the richest billionaire in the UK went to Sir James Dyson, with an estimated worth of £16.2 billion.Although not traditionally viewed as retailers, the Dyson empire consists of consumer-facing stores worldwide.Elsewhere in the Sunday Times Rich List, the only other retail-linked family to have landed a spot in the UK top 20 are the Barclay brothers.The Barclays had £1 billion wiped off their wealth since last year, but they retained their rank at 17.Their online retail empire, which includes Littlewoods and Very, had record sales in 2017-18 despite a loss of £48.3 miliion.Meanwhile, Tom Morris – the owner of discount chain Home Bargains – saw the biggest year-on-year jump of the retail billionaire, adding £510 million to his wealth and climbing from 40th to 30th richest in the UK.Morris and his family are now valued an estimate £4.1 billion – more than retail tycoons Mike Ashley and Sir Philip Green combined.Ashley and Green themselves were ranked 75th and 154th respectively on this year’s Sunday Times Rich List, after having £27 million and £30 million wiped off their respective worth.Other notable retail billionaires on the UK rich list include Mahmud Kamani and family, who own the Boohoo Group retail empire, and Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group tycoon Philip Day.Kamani, ranked 142nd, is estimated to be worth around £1.03 billion after losing £132 million since last year, while Day, ranked 125th, is worth £1.14 billion but lost £60 million since 2019.On a global basis, the Sunday Times Rich List ranked The Walton family – the clan behind the Walmart retail empire, which in turn owns Asda in the UK – as the richest billionaires int the world with an estimated worth of £160.5 billion.Their wealth is well ahead of runner up Jeff Bezos, the tycoon behind the Amazon empire, who is thought to be worth around £88.3 billion.Rounding out the global top five is LVMH tycoon Bernard Arnault, with an estimated worth of £59.4 billion.Inditex’s Amancio Ortega is still the richest man in fast fashion retail, ranking ninth on the global rich list with an estimated worth of £43 billion. Companies House Companies House does not verify the accuracy of the information filed (link opens a new window) Sign in / Register. Digital Edition: The Weston family 15 March 2018By Emily Sutherland Companies Includes Primark, Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason Please register for guest access or subscribeto Drapers to keep reading. George Weston is now one of North America's largest food processing and distribution groups. His son, Galen Jr., now runs both George Weston Ltd. and Loblaws, which acquired Canadian drugstore chain Shoppers for about $12 billion in July 2013. WESTON FAMILY 4TH CORPORATION THE (Cr No. Freezer Tape. She is married to architect Alex Cochrane and they live in a 19th-century home in South Kensington in London with their two daughters. "And you can't be passive. However, its shares have been hit in recent weeks by fears an expansion into the US may falter. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. The clan — now headed by the 72-year-old Galen Weston — consistently ranks as Across the pond, Weston’s Irish-born wife, Hilary, rates No. SHOP BY CATEGORY. Operating profits at Primark have soared by more than 300pc in the past decade, often riding to the rescue of the conglomerate's share price.