John Hargreaves

John Hargreavesis a Monaco-based British businessman, the founder and chairman of the UK out-of-town discount clothing and homeware chain Matalan.

Career

John Hargreaves was born in January 1944 in Everton, the son of a docks labourer, one of eight children who all shared one bedroom in a Liverpool terrace house.

Hargreaves left school at 14, went into the retail business when he was 16, and opened the first Matalan store in Preston in 1985. Matalan has over 200 stores in the UK, and employs over 16,000 people. He resigned as chairman of Matalan in November 2007, less than a year after taking the company private. His daughter Maxine purchased British womenswear retailer Fenn Wright Manson for an undisclosed sum on 28 March 2012.

According to The Sunday Times Rich List in 2019 his net worth was estimated at £600 million.