Bill Adderley was born in Leeds in 1948, the third child in a family of six. Born in a council house in Leeds, Bill left school with four O-Levels when he was sixteen and worked for F.W. Woolworth for the next fourteen years. In 1979, with the support of his wife Jean, he set up his own market stall in Leicester, selling seconds. He was thirty-three when he founded the Dunelm homeware retailing group. In 2022, the Adderley family featured in the Sunday Times Rich List at an estimated £1.8 billion, putting them in the top 100. Bill and Jean have two sons, (Sir) Will and Jonathan, and four grandchildren.