Health foods are proving healthy for the bottom line at the parent of retailer Holland & Barrett, which saw its 66 Irish outlets deliver sales of just over €1 million each last year, on average.
Turnover rose almost 18 per cent to €66.4 million over the 12 months to the end of September last, although rising costs saw pretax profits slip 37 per cent to €2.65 million compared with €4.2 million the previous year.
Attention to detail is evident in disclosures that the business monitors average footfall per store, average items per basket and average transaction value “on a regular basis”.
That data presumably helped the wellness group make the case for the expansion that saw it add seven stores to its Irish business last year compared with just two in 2023. Allowing for two closures, the group now has 66 outlets.
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It’s all a far cry from the tumult of war that has been rumbling in the background at ultimate parent, Luxembourg-based LetterOne Investment Holdings, which bought Holland & Barrett back in 2017 for £1.77 billion.
LetterOne was cofounded in 2013 by Russian oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, largely on the back of proceeds of the sale of Russia’s third-largest oil producer TNK-BP to state-controlled Rosneft.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, the European Union almost immediately imposed sanctions on both men who quickly stepped aside from their roles at the investment group even while protesting the EU move.
At the time, LetterOne chairman Mervyn Davies and chief executive Jonathan Muir noted the LetterOne assets of the two men who “own less than 50 per cent” of the business were “effectively frozen”.
The affair has rumbled on in the background with the EU’s second-highest court last year ruling that the imposition of sanctions on the two men was unfair. Neither appears to have returned to their board positions thus far.
Back at Holland & Barrett, the business last year paid a dividend to its owners of €59.14 million. On the basis of the company statement when they stepped down, neither Aven nor Fridman will see any of that.
With all that drama, perhaps no one will notice that the director’s report of the Irish business managed to consistently misspell their own company’s name. Attention to detail indeed.
