Fashion brand Boden to axe dividend after Covid sales hit

Fashion brand Boden will axe the dividend this year after a “material reduction in sales” and rising costs since the start of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Acton based company - which includes Boris Johnson and David Cameron among its two million customers - said sales were particularly badly affected in March and April but improved “somewhat” from May.

Ranges for work, holiday, special occasion were particularly badly affected while more casual clothing did better.

The company said: “The global COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the group’s business in many dimensions.”

It was founded in 1991 by entrepreneur Johnnie Boden, who said in a statement at the start of the lockdown that these were “strange and scary times.”

The warning on profits came in the privately owned business’s accounts for the year to December 28, which were filed with Companies House this week.

Parent company JP Boden (Holdings) said all its sales channels “have experienced slowdowns to varying degrees” and added there was a risk of a “material impact” on the value of its trading subsidiaries.

Measures such as social distancing and delays to production and photography shoots “will impact the profitability of the business in 2020.” The company said it has already made a number of cost cutting moves.

Last year’s financial performance was described as “disappointing” with sales growth slowing from 11% to 1% and pre-tax profits slumping 49% to £15.4 million.

During the year the company closed its London call centre and its store at the Westfield London shopping mall after “lower than expected footfall” at a total cost of £2.1 million.

It paid out a dividend of £6.49 million last year of which around half will go to Boden and his family.