Half of listed retailers have no ethnic minorities at board level

The mandate made in 2017 by The Parker Review set the clear goal to have at least one person from an ethnic minority on the board of every FTSE 100 company by 2021, and on every FTSE 250 company by 2024.

The reality in 2021, however, is that 17% of those FTSE 100 companies in the consumer and retail industry still are yet to reach that goal, while 59% of the FTSE 250 have also failed to meet the target.

Korn Ferry also revealed that there are just 11 chief executives of an ethnic minority background leading the consumer companies listed in the FTSE 100, FTSE 250 or AIM, all of whom are male, while just five companies have diverse chairs.

Of the 31 retail companies listed, 16 of them have no ethnic minority representation and just three have people of colour in the top jobs – Boohoo chair Mahmud Kamani, B&M chief executive Simon Arora and Quiz Clothing boss Tarak Ramzan.

Of the listed companies in the retail sector on the FTSE 100 list, B&M and Tesco have the most diverse boards, with 14% of their top team coming from an ethnic minority background, while Primark owner AB Foods, Kingfisher and Sainsbury’s each have 11% ethnic minority boards.

From the FTSE 250, Dixons Carphone and WHSmith have also both achieved 11% diversity in their boardrooms, while Quiz Clothing is the most diverse retailer listed on AIM, with 33% of its board made up of people of colour.

The Hampton Alexander Review also set out a target for all FTSE 350 companies to achieve 33% female representation on their boards by 2020 – in most cases, this target has been achieved and exceeded according to Korn Ferry, but the Index reveals that a third of the listed companies have less than 25% female representation in their boardrooms

In the FTSE 100, Burberry has attained the best gender representation, with 45% of its board female, while Kingfisher and Next have both reach 44% and 40% female board members respectively.

However, after the departure of Karen Hubbard from Card Factory last year, there are no female retail chief executives in the FTSE 100, while Games Workshop non-executive director Elaine O’Donnell is the sole female retail chair.

Games Workshop has the most gender diverse board in the FTSE 250 for the retail sector, with 57% representation, while on AIM a third of Asos’ board is female.

Korn Ferry’s analysis examined the makeup of the 1,103 board directors on the 144 UK listed consumer companies.

Korn Ferry managing director Sarah Lim said: “The key to increasing female and ethnic representation in chair and CEO roles and on boards more widely is to recognise the issue and move it up the priority list on the board agenda.

“The lack of diversity in these positions must be actively addressed in both succession planning and longer-term talent pipelining at all levels of the organisation. This applies across the spectrum of both large and small cap companies.”

She added: “Diversity requires advocacy from the top. It’s proven that organisations with more diverse leadership perform at a higher level, and given the millions of people that the retail, hospitality and consumer goods industries employ, leaders have to be more reflective of the customer base and the communities they serve.”