Dunnes directors paid €14m dividend

DUNNES STORES directors Frank Dunne and Margaret Heffernan were paid a dividend of more than €14 million last year, the accounts for their main company in Northern Ireland, Britain and Spain show.

Documents filed at the UK companies office for Dunnes Stores (Bangor) Ltd show that the directors were paid a dividend of £11.9 million (€14.3 million) in relation to the 12 months to the end of January 2010, a period in which the company saw its pretax profits rise slightly to almost £28 million (€33.4 million).

Turnover at Dunnes business in the North and in Britain increased 3.7 per cent to £194.6 million (€232.6 million) over the period, as the company shook off the effects of recession. The directors’ dividend for the previous 12- month period amounted to £4.8 million (€5.8 million).

Although distribution costs increased, the company stripped back on its administrative expenses, which almost halved to £858,494 (€1 million). The number of employees also fell from more than 2,700 to 2,585 during its fiscal year.

Shareholders’ funds in the company as of the end of January stood at €339 million.

The Irish supermarket and department store group has 23 stores in Northern Ireland, six shops in England, five in Scotland and five in Spain. Dunnes Stores does not disclose any financial information for its 116 grocery and textiles stores in the Republic as they form an unlimited entity.

The latest accounts for Dunnes Stores (UK) Ltd, a subsidiary of Dunnes Stores (Bangor), show it made a pre-tax profit of £3.75 million (€4.32 million) in the same period.

Dunnes Stores opened its first store in the North in 1971 and in Spain in 1980. It expanded into Britain in 1986 with textile-only stores and opened its first Scottish store in 2000.