The 15 richest Brits in drinks

9. Tim Martin

Position 2019: 310

Position 2020: 416

Worth: £311 million

Rise/fall: -£126m

Sources: Hospitality (pubs)

Tim Martin is founder and chairman of pub chain Wetherspoon. Born in Norwich and raised in New Zealand, Martin bought his first pub in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1979. Wetherspoon now has around 900 pubs with sales up 5% to £1.69bn in 2017-18.

However, all 874 Wetherpoon pubs have been shut since 20 March, when UK prime minister Boris Johnson told bars, restaurants, hotels, and leisure centres to close their doors to help slow the spread of coronavirus. Like-for-like sales fell 4.5% in the week to 15 March, before pubs closed.

Martin’s company has so far furloughed 99% of its 43,000 employees, paying 80% of staff’s pre-lockdown wages.

In 2018, the pro-Brexit pub owner began removing European beer and wine from the pub chain and has signed a contract with Surrey wine estate Denbies.