Richard Budge

Richard John Budge (19 April 1947 – 18 July 2016) was a coal mining entrepreneur and chairman of The Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisations.

He went to Boston Grammar School in Lincolnshire. He studied Fine Arts at the University of Manchester.

He entered the coal mining industry when he joined the company of Retford-based (on West Carr Road) A.F. Budge, owned by his brother Tony (1939-2010), which ran opencast mines. It was also involved in civil engineering schemes such as building the new £3.2m A638 Redhouse interchange on the A1(M) north of Doncaster in 1979; junctions 4-6 of the A1(M) in 1973; and junctions 1-3 of the M621 in 1975; the M181 and a section of the M180 near Scunthorpe in 1978. The company also sponsored the December Gold Cup horse race at Cheltenham Racecourse from 1988 to 1991.

In February 1992, Richard Budge bought the opencast coal and Plant division from the family business with venture capital backing from Schroder Ventures for circa £103m, a transaction approved by Charterhouse Ventures and Prudential Ventures which were preference shareholders of AF Budge. A.F. Budge, was majority owned by his elder brother Tony Budge.

When the UK coal industry was privatised in 1994, Budge bought most of the pits for £815m, forming RJB Mining, which he had started in 1992 after buying his brother's opencast business division for £102.5m. This led to Budge being christened King Coal. He bought three out of five packages of the UK coal industry (17 deep mine pits) on 30 December 1994 for around £700m. At the time there were 19 deep mines left in the UK. The last of these remaining deep mine pits, Kellingley Colliery, would close on 18 December 2015.

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