THE Warburton family’s fortune has increased by £15 million in the last year.

The family behind the famous Bolton bakers is now worth an estimated £545 million, according to the new edition of The Sunday Times Rich List, ranking joint 16th in the North West.

Company chairman Jonathan Warburton and his cousins, Brett and Ross, assumed control of the business in 1991 following the retirement of their fathers.

The bakery was founded in 1876 by Thomas and Ellen Warburton and has been passed down through five generations of the family.

Hugh Grosvenor, who recently became the seventh Duke of Westminster, tops this year’s North West Rich List with a fortune of £9.52 billion, having inherited his family’s property empire.

The Warburtons’ fortune is matched by the Halstead family, of Radcliffe-based commercial flooring manufacturer and distributor James Halstead plc.

Also on the list is former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney at number 11 along with wife Nancy Shevell, property billionaire John Whittaker, and Home Bargains boss Tom Morris.

Robert Watts, the compiler of The Sunday Times Rich List 2017, said: “This year’s larger than ever Rich List lays bare how the fortunes of Britain’s richest 1,000 people have fared amid the astonishing events of the past 12 months.

“Our North West list is an intriguing mix of old money and new, with the head of long-running family businesses rubbing shoulders with some of the country’s most exciting new entrepreneurial talent.

“The Issa brothers’s petrol stations operation, the Arora family and the founders of the fast-growing Boohoo fashion business show how quickly fortunes can be built.”

There are eight billionaires on the North West list, the highest number of any region outside of London.