Chris Dawson and his wife Sarah are now said to be worth an impressive £2.5billion - making them the joint 70th richest people in the UK
The billionaire founder of discount chain The Range has seen his family fortune swell by an impressive £475million, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List.
Chris Dawson and his wife Sarah are now said to be worth an impressive £2.5billion - making them the joint 70th richest people in the UK. As well as founding The Range, business mogul Chris also saved the Wilko name from disappearing forever after finalising a deal last year to buy the name, website and intellectual property for £5million.
But the retail tycoon would say he is more like Del Boy than your typical billionaire. Chris, now aged 72, opened his first ever The Range shop in the Mill Business Park in Plymouth in 1989. There are now more than 200 The Range shops nationwide. But when the store owner first became a billionaire, he cried, admitting he felt “frightened, lonely and hollow”. In an interview with the Daily Mail, published in 2014, he said: “I thought this is the end, the show is over, what do I do for an encore? It’s nice, but I am no happier being a billionaire.”
The successful businessman - the youngest of three brothers - came from humble beginnings and remembers being cruelly mocked as a “dunce” or “thicko” in school because he could barely read or write. Chris grew up with his parents and two brothers in a council house in Plymouth and struggled with dyslexia.
But he had a sharp business sense and wasn’t afraid to graft, despite not learning to read until he was 27. He picked up two paper rounds while still in school and stole discarded copper from his metalwork class to sell in the scrap yard. Chris left school aged 15, with no qualifications, and started his working life as a market trader, selling cutlery off the backs of lorries in the markets of South-West England.
This is where his comparison of David Jason's famous Only Fools and Horses Del Boy character stems from, and he now honours his hero with his £35,000 DE11 BOY number plates that adorn his £250,000 Rolls Royce car. His time at the market led to him meeting his wife Sarah, when he was selling watches for £8.99 and she had only £5 in her pocket. Their love story blossomed after he let her off the remaining amount, although he has joked about "still waiting" to be paid back.
After saving up his profits from the market, Chris - who has previously admitted his admiration for failed Arcadia tycoon Sir Philip Green - used his own cash to open his first The Range store in 1989. It was known as The Range Home, Garden & Leisure and opened in his hometown of Plymouth, where he now has three shops.
The Range - which Chris describes as a "working man's John Lewis" - has gone from strength to strength ever since its grand opening, and has even picked up some famous fans along the way. Kate Middleton, duch*ess of Cambridge, was spotted shopping - supposedly for Christmas presents - in her local branch in Kings Lynn in December 2018.
The entire Dawson family now all work at The Range, daughter Lisa as a buyer and son Christopher on shop refits. And in 2019, it was reported that Chris had handed over ownership of the business to wife Sarah, after she moved to Jersey and made the Channel Island - a tax haven - her main home. The move is said to have saved the family up to £15million in tax. But while Chris clearly relishes his lavish lifestyle, owning a fleet of luxury cars and stunning homes, and using a private helicopter to visit his shops, he has never turned his back on his roots.
He barely takes two weeks off a year and his idea of a treat is a greasy fry-up. Admitting he doesn't know how to relax "unless I have a gin" the on-the-go entrepreneur has no intention of slowing his business empire down. "I will have a go at being a trillionaire," he was once quoted as saying.
This article was first published on September 15, 2023.
