Family-owned Dunelm Group plans listing

Family-owned Dunelm Group plans listing

	Published : Fri, 22 Sep 2006 07:50 By : Richard Owen Print this Story

LONDON: Dunelm Group Ltd, a firm floated by a husband-and-wife team to sell home furnishing items in a Leicester market stall and transformed it into a homewares retail giant, is planning a float on the London Stock Exchange in late October hoping to raise 120 million pounds.

Bill and Jean Adderley, along with their son William have the total ownership of Dunelm Group, which began as a single market stall in Leicester some 30 years ago. The company now sells anything from curtain to kitchenware.

The Adderleys said Thursday they plan to have an IPO selling 30 per cent of the business. The family will continue to remain controlling shareholders, with Jean, 60 owning 7.5 per cent, Bill, 50, owning 50 per cent and William, who now runs the business, 12.5 per cent.

The husband and wife had launched the business selling curtains in a vegetable market in Leicester in 1979. They opened their first high-street shop in Leicester in 1984. The group has a network of 82 stores today and offers the cheapest and widest selection of homewares.

While the family did not give any indication of the price of the shares that will be offered, analysts are valuing the company between 350 million pounds and 400 million pounds.

The company said the offer will be a secondary placing of ordinary shares to certain institutional professional investors outside the U.S.

The company announced its results for the full year ended 1 July, posting a growth of 8.6 per cent in underlying profits at 46.5 million pounds. Its revenue grew 11.6 per cent to 315.2 million pounds.

Of its 82 stores, branded Dunelm Mill, 65 are out-of-town superstores, mostly located in the Midlands or north-west of England. It has some 18,000 products, which include bedding, curtains, gifts and seasonal items, cushions, kitchenwares and rugs.

William Adderley, who is chief executive of the company, said he has ambitious plans for Dunelm and a listing would confer status on the business and raise its profile. He intends to double the number of Dunelm Mill outlets and take the brand to southern regions.

The company had hired Geoff Cooper, chief executive of Travis Perkins, as its chairman to comply with governance issues. Bill Adderley is one of two other non-executive directors, while Jean Adderley has stepped back from the business entirely.