Lakeland owners take home £1m as kitchen retailer cooks up sales
LAKELAND’S owners netted a £1m dividend last year after the family-run kitchen and homeware retailer posted a four per cent rise in sales.
The Windermere-based group – owned by brothers Sam, Martin and Julian Rayner, reported sales of £157.5m in the year to 31 December 2012, up from £151.3m the previous year, accounts filed last week at Companies House show.
Pre-tax profits however slipped £6.2m from £7.2m in 2011 after it spent £5m on revamping stores and launching three new sites, taking the total number of stores to 60.
The directors also recommended a preferred dividend of £22,500 during the year on top of the final dividend of £1m, which was down slightly from £1.3m the previous year.
Lakeland was founded in 1964 by Alan Rayner selling plastic bags to farmers for packing poultry. His sons took over in 1974, taking the business into the home-freezing market and eventually transforming it into a mecca for kitchenware.