Lush dished out £5m in bonuses to bosses after claiming £5m in government support

It has been revealed that high street cosmetics chain, Lush, paid its managers £5 million in bonuses despite taking £5.1 million in government support after recording a 90% drop in profits.

The bonuses were paid in 2022 in addition to salaries. These were handed out to directors including the company’s Co-founder, Mark Constantine, and his wife, Mo, as well as six staff at Lush Cosmetics, the brand’s main operating company.

Lush Cosmetics saw sales rise by 5% to just shy of £431 million in the year ending 30 June 2022. However, like-for-like pre-tax profits fell to £1.7 million from £29 million the previous year. Claiming covid was the cause of the brand's downfall, the government stepped in with financial support in the form of business rates relief, which is a reduction in a company’s business rates bill.

However, Lush is currently in a legal battle with its former boss, Andrew Gerrie, after he attempted to sell his company shares. Back in February, Gerrie, who was Chief Executive at Lush for 20 years before leaving in 2015, accused the homemade cosmetics retailer of failing to record the valid transfer of a 19.8% stake to his private ownership.

Silverwood Brands, a special-purpose acquisition company set up last year for which Gerrie is Executive Director, purchased the stake in December 2022 for £216.8 million. However, Silverwood accused Lush of not recording the transfer to its subsidiary, Cosmic Circles. The retail chain said the sale "was not compliant with its articles of association".

If Lush distributed its profits via dividends rather than bonuses, it would have had to pay a share of them to Gerrie or Silverwood.