Edinburgh Woollen Mill, the retail group run by the billionaire Philip Day, has paid a record dividend of £30.5 million.
The largest share is expected to go to Mr Day. The company also owns Peacocks, Austin Reed and Jane Norman. In the year to February 28, 2016, it reported a £14 million increase in revenues to £576.3 million although net profits slipped from £85.9 million to £71.1 million after a rise in administrative expenses..
The business has nearly trebled in size over the past five years. Growth at the group has been driven by acquisitions, including the purchase of Peacocks, the discount retailer, and Jane Norman, the womenswear company, out of receivership.
Mr Day bought the Austin Reed brand and assets this year after administrators failed to find a bidder prepared to buy the fashion retailer as a going concern and announced the closure of 120 stores.
Last month, he announced plans to open 50 Austin Reed stores by early 2018 in a £100 million investment programme. Mr Day said at the time: “I come from a working-class background and have always admired Austin Reed — it is an incredible heritage brand but it had lost contact with who its customer was. I jumped in as I felt that if it was run properly with the right kind of capital investment it would work.”
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Austin Leonard Reed made his name dressing the rich, famous and influential. In its heyday the tailor had a concession on the Queen Elizabeth transatlantic liner, designed uniforms for the armed forces and made “foreign suits” for members of resistance groups during the Second World War. Austin Reed’s first shop for opened on Fenchurch Street in London in 1900 and its customers have included Winston Churchill and the Beatles.
Mr Day joined Edinburgh Woollen Mill in 2001 after leading a buyout backed by Rutland Fund Management, a private equity group. He took full ownership a year later.
Edinburgh Woollen Mill, which also acquired the textile business Rosebys and furnishing business Ponden Mill and merged them to create the Ponden Home chain, targets the over-40s and is regarded as a leader in this demographic.