Dunelm owners pay themselves £50m

The family behind the Dunelm homewares group have paid themselves a£50 million dividend just weeks before the company lists on the London Stock Exchange.

The payment emerged as the owners of Dunelm - which has 82 stores across the Midlands and Northwest - prepared to sell 30 per cent of the business, which is expected to raise a further£120 million.

As a result of the flotation, Dunelm is set to be valued at between£350 million and£400 million.

In the year to July, the retailer - which began in 1979 as a curtain stall in Leicester - made a pre-tax profit of£38 million on turnover of£315 million.

After the float Dunelm chief executive Will Adderley plans to double the number of Dunelm stores by expanding into the South of England.