Specsavers maintains £15m pay day despite falling profit
Specsavers has maintained the £15m payday for its Guernsey-based owners despite another year of a decline in its profit.
The national brand has handed the interim dividend to its parent company Specsavers Optical Group, the same total as in its prior financial year.
The ultimate parent company of the UK business is beneficially owned by Dame Mary Perkins and her husband Doug.
The dividend has been revealed in newly-filed accounts with Companies House which shows that Specsavers’ pre-tax profit fell from £327.7m to £323.6m in the year to 29 February, 2024.
Its pre-tax profit is significantly down from the £449.5m it reported in 2022.
According to the new accounts for the UK business, Specsavers’ turnover increased from £3.4bn to £3.7bn in the year. However, its annual report states that its group turnover surpassed £4bn in the 12 months.
Specsavers does not publish its full group accounts due to being headquartered in Guernsey.
As well as the UK, the brand operates across Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
Specsavers said its profit dropped because of its decision to “absorb the inflationary price increases we have been exposed to and wherever possible not pass these on to our customers”.
It added that its profit was impacted by a “continuing significant upfront investment” in marketing to support the launch of its business in Canada as well as an increase in spending on technology.
Reasons behind profit drop ‘well understood’ – Specsavers
A statement signed off by the board said: “The drivers behind the year-on-year decrease in profitability are well understood and the SEB [Specsavers Executive Board] believe the investments are critical to enable the business to continue to grow and to deliver on its overall purpose to change lives through better sight and hearing.
“However, the SEB is also closely monitoring the wider macro-economic environment and linking this back to the business plans in place in each of our territories to ensure that they are being factored into our decision making.
“It is essential that the business continues to respond appropriately to the economic challenges that we are facing.
“The combination of ongoing inflationary price increases and economic uncertainty impacts our customers, meaning that we are more mindful than ever of the difference we can make in our communities by offering best-value products and professionally clinical care to everyone.”
Specsavers’ UK turnover increased from £1.7bn to £1.9bn in the year while it rose from £766,230 to £812,254 in the rest of Europe.
In Australasia, the company’s sales grew rom £848,095 to £871,751 and from £57,532 to £108,280 in North America.
During the year the average number of people employed by Specsavers jumped from 42,782 to 45,406.