Top Liverpool jewellery brand Boodles sees annual sales fall slightly to £104.9m with members of the controlling Wainwright and Amos families sharing £7.9m in dividends. Tony McDonough reports

Top jewellery brand Boodles, which was founded in Liverpool in 1798, is reporting annual sales of £104.9m from its 10 UK outlets and its e-commerce operation.

Boodles was established by the Wainwright family 226 years ago as H Wainwright & Sons. In 1910 the family acquired another jewellers, Boodle and Dunthorne, and retained the name. Still officially called Boodle and Dunthorne, the business trades as Boodles.

It operates 10 retail outlets including its flagship store on the corner of North John Street and Lord Street in Liverpool, five in London, including stores inside Harrods and the Savoy, as well as shops in Chester, Manchester, Leeds and Dublin, employing more than 130 people.

In its annual accounts for the 12 months to February 29, 2024, Boodles said its sales figure was down from the £106.4m reported in the previous year. Pre-tax profits also fell from £19.6m to £18m.

However, with the UK economy improving in late 2023 and early 2024 Boodles managing director Jody Wainwright said trading in the current financial year had so far been “encouragingly strong” with a significant increase in sales and net profits.

During the period covered by the accounts shareholder dividends totalled around £6.4m. However, they add under the section ‘post balance sheet events’ that dividends of almost £8m had been declared.

These dividends will be shared by members of the controlling Wainwright and Amos families although Companies House lists Michael Wainwright, Jonathan Wainwright and Nicholas Wainwright as “persons with significant control”.

On March 1 this year, Jody Wainwright and James Amos were named as joint managing directors of Boodles with Michael Wainwright becoming chairman and Nicholas Wainwright president.

Michael’s children Honour and Geordie are also in the business which has now been controlled by the Wainwright family for six generations.

According to the accounts directors remuneration for the year, including salaries and pension contributions, totalled £680,665. The highest paid director was paid £120,000.

During the 12-months period the company made charitable donations of more than £1.2m with £1m paid to the Boodle and Dunthorne Charitable Trust.

In the report, Jody added: “Investment in stock has risen significantly for the second year running. More investment has been made in the purchase of important and high value white and fancy coloured diamonds.

“Given the strong cash position of the company, more has also been invested in regular jewellery stock so that a shop is never “without” and minimises the chance of missing a sale.”

Boodles designs and creates all of its own jewellery, sourcing stones from the major gem centres of the world such as Antwerp, New York and Bangkok.

Although the business is technically registered in London, Liverpool remains its true home and is still the nerve centre of its operation with essential functions such as design and production still taking place in the city.

READ MORE: Jeweller David M Robinson sees annual sales rise 6% to £58.6m

READ MORE: Liverpool entrepreneurs launch new gymwear brand

In an interview in 2022 Nicholas Wainwright said: “We’ve always been in the centre of Liverpool… We kept the name of Boodle and Dunthorne because it was a better known name than our own jewellers.

“Since 1911,when both Mr Boodle and Mr Dunthorne both died, the Wainwright family took over and we’ve owned it as an independent jewellers since that date.”