Dunnes Stores UK business pays £250m dividend to Irish parent company

Dunnes Stores (Bangor) Ltd, the UK arm of Irish retailer Dunnes Stores, paid over £250m (€283m) in dividends to its parent company and other undertakings in 2016, according to accounts recently filed with the UK companies office.

The ultimate parent company of Dunnes Stores (Bangor) Ltd is Dunnes Holding company, an unlimited private company registered in Ireland.

The accounts also show that Dunnes Stores UK made an operating loss of £5.9m (€6.7m) in 2016. This was primarily the result of a £7.6m (€8.6m) impairment charge taken on buildings and other assets. The pre-tax loss for the year was just under £5.1m (€5.8m).

More worryingly for Dunnes Stores, sales in the business plunged more than 20% in 2016 to less than £100m (€113m). Net assets in the business fell to £75.8m (€86m) as a result of the operating loss, while cash reserves dropped to just over £40m (€45m).

The accounts filed by Dunnes Stores UK subsidiary offer the only real insight into the financial background of Dunnes Stores as the secretive retail giant does not file accounts in Ireland. Dunnes UK business comprises 29 stores, with 20 of these located in Northern Ireland. During 2016, Dunnes slashed almost 200 employees in its UK business back to a total of 1,290.

Directors in the company include Margaret Heffernan and Francis Dunne. In August 2017, Dr Anne Heffernan and Sharon McMahon were added as directors of the business.