River Island shareholders redirect dividends back into the business

River Island, the family owned high street giant, has filed figures at Companies House which showed a small drop in operating profits at the business from £146.6m to £145.8m in 2015. Sales however were up £1m at £932.7m.

The business, which was founded 50 years ago (it was then known as Chelsea Girl) by Bernard Lewis, still has three Lewis family members on the board including CEO Ben Lewis (nephew of the founder).

They have decided not to take a dividend from the business and invest the cash in the company instead, in what is a challenging environment for high street retailers, according to The Daily Telegraph.

“We are investing heavily in technology and people against a backdrop of a very challenging environment. Consumers are shifting their behaviours and they expect retailers to be multichannel,” Lewis told the newspaper.

Lewis has stated his aim to be a digital leader on the high street and recently opened a digital office in the heart of London's centre for technology innovation Shoreditch. Shortly after it launched a first of its kind campaign with Snapchat where customers could activate bespoke Snapchat filters in-store.