Duncan Bannatyne is a businessman of Scottish origin who is a philanthropist and a great entrepreneur. Coming from a rough background, Bannatyne has become a renowned British businessman with interest in health clubs, hotels – Spas, Media and TV, and Property and Transport.
Duncan Bannatyne’s net worth is about €650 million. His earnings are from his businesses, which cuts across different sectors, his books, and TV appearances.
Duncan Bannatyne became famous for his appearance on BBC 2 business television show Dragons’ Den. He invested in 36 ventures but had sold all his stakes in those ventures by 2016. However, his investments helped those entrepreneurs to begin their business journeys. This article provides you with all you need to know about Duncan Bannatyne’s net worth, age, wife or wives, and his house.
Early life
Duncan Bannatyne was born in Dalmuir, Clydebank, Glasgow, Scotland, on 2 February 1949. His parents William Bannatyne and Jean Bannatyne, brought Duncan alongside six other children in a room apartment in a housing estate in Clydebank. William Bannatyne had been a Japanese prisoner of War. He was among those captured following the Fall of Singapore. Duncan’s mother worked as a cleaner and had instilled the spirit of hard-work in her children. His father worked in the Singer factory, making moulds and melting metal.
Bannatyne attended Dalmuir Primary School and won a place at Clydebank High School, having displayed excellent arithmetic ability. To own a bicycle just like other kids in the neighbourhood, Bannatyne took a local newsagent job as a paper round boy. Though the newsagent did not seem interested in giving him the job, he surpassed the challenge of getting new 100 names posed to him by the agent. He got the job bought himself a bike, which marked the beginning of his quest to conquer anything that came his way.
Bannatyne left High School without qualification and joined the Royal Navy at the age of 15. He enlisted as a junior second class engineer mechanic stoker at RNTE Shotley for a tenure of twelve years. Bannatyne served in the Navy for some years. He received a dishonourable discharge for throwing an officer off a bank landing in Scotland. Bannatyne stated in his autobiography that his actions were prompted by the officer’s abuse of his authority then fuelled by his disillusionment with the Navy by seeking a way out. He claimed to have done that partly because of a dare by his shipmates. Following the incident, he served nine months in Colchester’s military detention center.
Bannatyne Entrepreneurial Path
Leaving the military detention in his early twenties, Bannatyne moved to Jersey. He joggled from one job to another and, in the process, met his first wife in Stockton-on-Tees in North East England. During this period, he trained as an agricultural vehicle fitter and also gained an HGV license. He began his first business by selling ice cream in an ice cream van he purchased for €450.
Experiencing success, he expanded by buying more vans, but having an eye for a bigger business, he sold the ice cream business for €28,000 and found a home care named Quality Care Homes. By 1987, he sold Quality Care Homes for €26 million and another company of his Just Learning for €22 million.
Bannatyne has expanded from health clubs to hotels and property. Bannatyne’s Health Club and Spa have become a household name in the UK. At a whopping sum of € 92 million, he acquired 26 health clubs from Hilton Hotels in 2006 and owned about 71 sites in the UK. The business has 46 Spas with plans to expand.
As a successful businessman, Bannatyne shares part of his knowledge and experiences as an entrepreneur. These ideas are enshrined in books, seminars, and appearances as a TV personality on various TV shows. Bannatyne has written seven books: Anyone Can Do It, Wake Up and Change Your Life, How to be Smart with Your Money, How to be Smart with Your Time, 43 Mistakes Businesses Make, 37 Question Everyone in Business Needs to Answer, and Riding the Storm.
Dragons’ Den: Duncan Bannatyne
Duncan Bannatyne was one of the pioneer panelists of BBC business show Dragons’ Den alongside Peter Jones who still sits as a panelist after seventeen series. Bannatyne starred for 12 series starting from 2005 – 2015. During his time as a ‘dragon’ he invested in 36 investments. In 2016, he stated that he had sold his stake in all his Dragons’ Den. Two of his most successful investment are:
- Chocbox is a patented plastic box for safely enclosing electrical connections made with screw connector strips. Peter Moule owns it.
- Razzamataz theatre – owned by Denise Hutton-Gosney, a UK based theatre school teaches dance, drama, and singing.
Duncan Bannatyne wives and house
Duncan Bannatyne has been in three marriages. He has a total of six children from his first two wives. Bannatyne married his first wife, Gail Brodie, in 1983 and was divorced in 1994. While married, they had four children together, Hollie, Abigail, Jennifer, and Eve. He married his second wife Joanne McCue after they met in 1992 and divorced in 2012. Bannatyne and Joane have two children Tom and Emily. His divorce from Joanne McCue affected his net worth.
Bannatyne met his current wife, Nigora, in 2015 in London. Nigora is from Uzbekistan – a single mum of seventeen-year-old Gabrielle. Bannatyne has a home in Yorkshire and a villa in Portugal, and he currently lives in Portugal with his young wife. He is diagnosed with prosopagnosia, a health challenge that makes it hard for him to recognize familiar faces. Bannatyne was honoured with the Order of British Empire (OBE) for his contribution to charities. He funded a lot of projects across Europe. This includes his involvement with Comic Relief and UNICEF, and as a campaigner of No Smoking. He appeared in a documentary about the ethics of British American Tobacco.
Duncan Bannatyne Net worth
Duncan Bannatyne’s net worth is about €650 million. His earnings are from his businesses, which cuts across different sectors, his books, and TV appearances.