Care Homes/Automotive
2015: No.20 - £172m
2014: No.21= - £145m

Keith Bradshaw founded the Listers car dealership with business partner Terry Lister 35 years ago. Now it is England’s largest independent dealer group.

And the Stratford-upon-Avon-based company makes good profits. In 2013-14, operating profits were more than £15.3 million on a turnover in excess of £860 million.

The motor group saw increased trading, boosted by its expanding portfolio of dealerships across the Midlands, East Anglia and the north of England.

The biggest contribution to the increase in sales volumes comes from the group’s Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen divisions. The company invested almost £1 million to give Listers Volkswagen Coventry in Quinton Road a major facelift. The group’s dealerships pick up awards on a regular basis. In 2014 Toyota Nuneaton received the Dealer of the Year accolade from Lex Autolease, while Listers Land Rover is another Dealer of the Year winner.

Keith Bradshaw, aged 71, is chairman and 50 per cent owner of the Listers. The group is proudly independent , so, while the big dealer groups slug it out to deliver shareholder value, Listers – as an independent family company – can rise above it all.

With more than 50 outlets across the country, Listers is worth almost £200 million and employs 1,700 people. It is co-owned by Keith Bradshaw’s partner and public face of the group, Terry Lister. The two began in business with a single dealership and body shop in Coventry.

Listers runs an extensive portfolio of franchises, including BMW, Land Rover, Jaguar, SEAT, Audi, Honda, Toyota, Lexus, Mercedes and Volkswagen. The company also has a franchise for Volkswagen commercials.

Keith Bradshaw is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. After qualifying as an accountant in Birmingham in 1966 he attended Handsworth Technical College. He spent time in West Africa before returning aged 30 and setting up a number of private companies, the foremost of which was BP Nursing Homes which became Takare and which was sold to BUPA in 1998 for close on £300 million. When it was sold it was the largest operator of its type in Europe, employing 14,000 people.

He is non-executive chairman of property company Nurton Developments, run by his son David, who is managing director. His brother, also David, is Nurton’s construction and technical director. The company has a policy of bringing unloved and neglected buildings back to life.

Nurton has become one of the region’s leading developers of industrial, office and mixed use retail and leisure space. It has a residential offshoot – Urban Cube. Nurton Developments has recently won outline planning permission for up to 400 houses in Leicestershire. The 50-acre scheme, at the Holywell Spring Farm development in Ashby-de-la-Zouche, will include a 65-bedroom care home. The company is also building 2,500 new homes in Burton as well as developing 50 acres of employment land in Branston Locks, west of Burton expected to create 3,000 jobs. Nurton’s flagship property is the landmark Two Colmore Square, which has undergone a £25 million transformation.

Keith Bradshaw also has an interest in Laney Headstock, which produces a range of musical instruments and sound reinforcement products.