John Stuart Bloor (born 16 June 1943) is a British billionaire businessman. His business, Bloor Holdings, owns both

Bloor Homes Bloor Homes Limited is a British housebuilder based in Measham, Leicestershire. It is Britain’s largest privately owned housebuilder. Bloor Homes was established in 1969 by John Bloor. The 2000s was a particularly profitable decade for the f ...

and Triumph Motorcycles.

Early life

Bloor was born in a small

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

village. His father was a

coal miner Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extrac ...

. He suffered from health problems, and long absences from school limited his formal education, leaving school at the age of 15.

Career

Bloor's first job was as a trainee

plasterer A plasterer is a tradesman who works with plaster, such as forming a layer of plaster on an interior wall or plaster decorative moldings on ceilings or walls. The process of creating plasterwork, called plastering, has been used in buildin ...

for a local building contractor. Two years later he set up his own business and began building his first house before he was 20. His building company,

, is now one of the largest privately owned house builders in the UK, and has contributed to the successful regeneration of the

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire (except for North Lincolnshire and North East ...

. In 2002, housing sales reached 1,870 making Bloor Homes then the largest housebuilder to be owned by one man. While attending the auction of the site of the former Triumph factory to buy the site for house construction, Bloor bought the collapsed Triumph brand in 1983. After sub-licensing the brand for a period, he invested over £80 million into rebuilding the marque, opening the new

Hinckley Hinckley is a market town in south-west Leicestershire, England, administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. Hinckley is the third largest settlement in Leicestershire, after Leicester and Loughborough, and is about halfway between L ...

factory in 1991. After a factory fire in 2002 stopped production the factory was rebuilt, and now produces 46,000 motorcycles per annum. In 2016, Bloor received the

Diamond Jubilee A diamond jubilee celebrates the 60th anniversary of a significant event related to a person (e.g. accession to the throne or wedding, among others) or the 60th anniversary of an institution's founding. The term is also used for 75th annivers ...

Trophy on behalf of all the staff at Triumph Motorcycles. The Trophy has only been given out four times previously. In 2018, Bloor was paid a £7 million dividend by Bloor Holdings, the company that owns Bloor Homes and Triumph. In 2021, the Sunday Times Rich List estimated his net worth at £1.275 billion.

Personal life

Bloor lives in

Swadlincote Swadlincote is a historic mining town in the district of South Derbyshire, in the county of Derbyshire, England. It lies within The National Forest (England), The National Forest area. It borders the counties of Leicestershire and Staffordshire ...

South Derbyshire South Derbyshire is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Derbyshire, England. The district covers the towns of Melbourne, Derbyshire, Melbourne and Swadlincote as well as numerous villages and hamlets such as Hilton, Derbys ...

, England. Due to hip problems he rarely rides motorcycles, preferring a

Range Rover The Land Rover Range Rover, generally shortened to Range Rover, is a Sport utility vehicle, 4x4 Luxury car, luxury SUV produced by Land Rover, a marque and sub-brand of Jaguar Land Rover, owned by Tata Motors. The Range Rover line was launched ...

. He has two sons, Adrian and Nick. Adrian was chief executive of

until early 2020.

Political donations

J.S. Bloor donated £400,000 to the Conservative Party in the 2017 general election. In the 2019 general election, donations of £750,000 and £200,000 were made to the Conservative Party, and £12,000 to Conservative MP

Andrew Bridgen Andrew James Bridgen (born 28 October 1964) is a British former politician who served as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for North West Leicestershire (UK Parliament constituency), North West Leicestershire from ...

Honours

* In 1995 Bloor was awarded the OBE for services to the motorcycle industry * Honorary Doctor of Laws,

University of Leicester The University of Leicester ( ) is a public university, public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, Univ ...

References