Graham Kirkham, Baron Kirkham: Difference between revisions
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After passing the [[Eleven plus exam]], he attended [[Maltby]] [[Grammar School]] and hoped to join the [[Royal Air Force]] as a pilot. Failing to get the required five [[O levels]], Kirkham got a job in a local furniture store. |
After passing the [[Eleven plus exam]], he attended [[Maltby]] [[Grammar School]] and hoped to join the [[Royal Air Force]] as a pilot. Failing to get the required five [[O levels]], Kirkham got a job in a local furniture store. |
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===Northern Upholstery=== |
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In [[1969]] aged 22, Kirkham was married with two children, which he describes as great motivation<ref>http://www.sheffieldtoday.net/viewarticle.aspx?sectionid=58&ArticleID=213946</ref>. |
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Having visited a few manufacturers in his daily work, he decided that making furniture was relativly easy and that by cutting out the wharehouse dealers in the middle of the supply chain he could retail direct to the public at cheaper prices. Kirkham rented a room above a [[snooker]] hall in [[Carcroft]], and started making furniture upstairs and retailing it downstairs. |
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Revision as of 14:42, 1 April 2007
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Graham Kirkham, Baron Kirkham of Old Cantley (born 14 December 1944 in Doncaster), is an English businessman famous for founding sofa retailer Dfs.
Kirkham is a strong political and financial supporter of the Conservative Party. Kirkham is one of South Yorkshire's richest men, with a personal fortune estimated at £315m
Biogrpahy
Adopted at the age of three weeks, he is the only son of Edlington miner Tom Kirkham and his wife Elsie: "My whole life has been the luck of going to a good family."[1]
After passing the Eleven plus exam, he attended Maltby Grammar School and hoped to join the Royal Air Force as a pilot. Failing to get the required five O levels, Kirkham got a job in a local furniture store.
Northern Upholstery
In 1969 aged 22, Kirkham was married with two children, which he describes as great motivation[2].
Having visited a few manufacturers in his daily work, he decided that making furniture was relativly easy and that by cutting out the wharehouse dealers in the middle of the supply chain he could retail direct to the public at cheaper prices. Kirkham rented a room above a snooker hall in Carcroft, and started making furniture upstairs and retailing it downstairs.
Dfs
Kirkham
Probably one of the richest local businessmen and entrepreneurs as founder and executive chairman of the family run and Carcroft-based furniture group DFS. Graham is also known for his donations to the conservative party.
Lord Kirkham founded the company 34 years ago, making furniture above a shop in Carcroft and selling it downstairs. He became a multi-millionaire when he sold almost half the business in the float. It is now worth around £450m and his stake, after selling shares over the years, is some 10 per cent.
Lord Kirkham told the Yorkshire Post "It's something that's caused me fitful sleep in the time I've been thinking about it. I've no hobby, this is my hobby – it's what I do. I'm an entrepreneur. It's almost as if I can feel the adrenaline running through my veins."
Lord Kirkham resides in Yorkshire
PARENTS Son of Tom and Elsie Kirkham
DATE OF BIRTH 14 December 1944
MARITAL DETAILS Married Pauline Fisher 1965 1 son Sean Michael Kirkham (1973) currently residing in New York, USA 1 daughter Carol Anne Kirkham (1982) currently residing in Zurich, Switzerland and British Columbia, Canada
EDUCATED
Maltby Grammar School
PROFESSION Executive Chairman, DFS Furniture Company Plc, Founded Company in 1969, Listed on UK Stock Exchange 1993
South Yorkshireman Kirkham, 59, has announced plans to take his quoted furniture chain DFS private, using £150m of his family fortune. The family retains a 9.46% stake, worth £40m, to which past share sales add £180m. It also has art and property.
Politics
Kirkham is well know for his support for the Conservative Party. By 1996 he had leant the party £4million in an interest free loan, and in the New Years Honours List was given a knighthood. John Prescott, then in opposition called it: "the crudest example yet of honours given for financial services to the Tory Party." Kirkham responded that the honour was for his charitable work for The Duke of Edinburgh's Award and the Animal Health Trust[3].
Among his charitable donations, Kirkham gave £225,000 to help cancer research by Bradford University, and £200,000 to Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex's Ardent TV company in 1994 because he had "a burning desire to succeed."[4]
In June, 1999, Kirkham was made a life peer as Baron Kirkham of Old Cantley, one of the working peers recommended by then Tory leader William Hague who had borrowed Kirkham's helicopter for electioneering[5].
Personal life
Lord Kirkham is one of South Yorkshire's richest men with a personal fortune worth £315m yet who furnishes his two homes, Grade II-listed Cantley Hall and a large house behind a six feet high wall in Cadeby Road, Sprotborough, with DFS sofas. It's at Cantley, where he has entertained the Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Anne, that he keeps his Old Masters, such as Constable's View of the Stour (bought for £6.7m) and Gainsborough's Peasants Going To Market (£3.5m). He is an intensely private man, giving few interviews. Perhaps his most revealing quote was: "At the end of the day my business and my private life are one and the same thing because I like it. It's my hobby, job, religion."
References
- ^ http://www.sheffieldtoday.net/viewarticle.aspx?sectionid=58&ArticleID=213946
- ^ http://www.sheffieldtoday.net/viewarticle.aspx?sectionid=58&ArticleID=213946
- ^ http://www.sheffieldtoday.net/viewarticle.aspx?sectionid=58&ArticleID=213946
- ^ http://www.sheffieldtoday.net/viewarticle.aspx?sectionid=58&ArticleID=213946
- ^ http://www.sheffieldtoday.net/viewarticle.aspx?sectionid=58&ArticleID=213946