Sir Peter Rigby wanted to be an RAF pilot and had learned to fly by age 15. However, the declining health of his father meant that he instead took a graduate job at National Cash Register, where he learned to write computer programs. That turned out to be an invaluable skill, especially for someone entrepreneurially minded. In 1975, aged 32, he used £2,000 of his own savings to found Specialist Computer Recruitment, a Birmingham IT recruitment agency.

More than fifty years on, that seed has become Rigby Group, one of the largest wholly family-owned companies in the UK. The engine is SCC, the IT reseller and services business that now operates across the UK, France and Spain. But Rigby built an unusually diversified holding company around it, which has included regional airports, the Eden Hotel Collection of country house hotels, a luxury residential developer and a portfolio of minority technology stakes.

Revenues for Rigby Group reached £3.8bn in the year to 31 March 2025, up 3 per cent and pre-tax profits of £67.8m. In August 2025 the group sold Regional & City Airports – Bournemouth, Exeter and Norwich – to FTSE 100 asset manager ICG in a deal reported by Sky News at around £200m. The sale strengthens the group's capital position as it continues its £300m investment programme in AI, cloud and cybersecurity. Rigby remains chairman in his 80s, with sons James and Steve as co-CEOs and a third generation now in the business. He has also established the Rigby Foundation, through which the group supports education, community and technology initiatives.