£50m windfall at The White Company

The founder of The White Company and her husband raked in £50m of dividends last year, figures showed.

Chrissie Rucker cashed in on the firm’s recent success after profits at the home furnishings and fashion chain rose 6 per cent to £33m.

The British businesswoman received an estimated £25m from the record dividend in 2022. A further £5.1m was handed to the highest-paid director in pay and benefits.

Rucker’s husband Nicholas Wheeler – the man behind shirt-maker Charles Tyrwhitt – was also handed £25m from the dividend.

The White Company posted revenues of £276m last year. Rucker, 55, has expanded the business to around 50 stores since it launched as a 12-page mail order catalogue in 1994.

The White Company’s £50m dividend, included in the firm’s latest filings at Companies House, was paid to Bectin Limited, a business that is wholly owned by Rucker and Wheeler.