Bill Adderley

Adderley, who lives at Hambleton, was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honour's List, published on 12 June 2021.

In 2020, the Sunday Times Rich List estimated his net worth at £1.47 billion in 2020. Forbes estimated it at US$2.4 billion as of July 2021.

Adderley sold most of his stake in Marks & Spencer and bought a stake in Morrisons in 2017.

In October 2013, The Guardian commented that Adderley had become the largest private shareholder in Marks & Spencer, having built a stake valued at £250 million.

Adderley was a manager at a Woolworths store in Coalville, but left in 1979 after the company wanted him to relocate to its Skegness store.

In 1979, while looking for a new job, Adderley and his wife, Jean, sold curtains which had been rejected by Marks and Spencer from a stall on Leicester market. In 1984, they opened their first home furnishings store, calling it Dunelm Mill. He retired from Dunelm at the age of 58 in 2006 and left the growth of the company in the hands of his son, Sir William (“Will”) Adderley, and it was at this time the company floated.

Sir William Adderley (born February 1948) is a British billionaire businessman, founder of the FTSE 250-listed Dunelm Group home furnishings retailer. Forbes estimated his net worth at US$2.4 billion as of July 2021.

Adderley was born on a council estate in February 1948 in Leeds, Yorkshire. Adderley left school at 16, with a basic education level. He was a boyhood fan of Leeds United.