The family behind The White Company have handed themselves at least £50m in payments as the upmarket homewares and clothing brand bounced back from the pandemic lockdowns.
The company paid a £50m dividend to an entity controlled by founder Chrissie Rucker and her husband Nicholas Wheeler, the founder of shirtmaker Charles Tyrwhitt, while the group’s highest paid director, thought to be Rucker, took a further £5m in pay, up from £675,000 a year before, as a long-term bonus plan cashed in.
The dividend payment comes after a break in payments to The White Company’s shareholders during the pandemic. The last dividend payment was £5.2m, paid in August 2019, with £10m paid the year before.
The White Company, which was founded in 1994 as a mail order business with a small government grant and £6,000 from an inheritance, received £2.6m in furlough payments in 2021 and £3.5m a year before as it dealt with the high street lockdowns.
Mary Homer, the chief executive of The White Company, said: “Like other retailers, we were extremely grateful for furlough support during the Covid years for our 62 retail stores and concessions.
“It was a time of huge uncertainty for the business, and it enabled us to keep [about] 1,100 store members of staff in employment.”
The chain, which has 51 stores and 11 concessions, achieved a near 18% rise in pretax profits to £32.6m as sales rose 2% to £276m in the year to 30 July 2022.
The company said sales had risen 65% in stores, bouncing back after pandemic restrictions eased, but this was offset by a 22% fall in online sales which had been artificially inflated by the government’s stay-at-home measures.
In a report filed to Companies House this week, The White Company’s directors said it had achieved “a strong set of financial results” but added: “We are mindful that the landscape is still challenging.”
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They said war in Ukraine and inflation would make the coming year difficult for many, and so they were cautious about the short-term outlook.
Homer, who quit a job running Topshop to move to the brand in 2017, said: “We are really pleased with our current performance, and it is a delight to see retail return to normal and particularly to see the high streets busy again. I therefore remain cautiously optimistic going forward.”
