Home secretary Theresa May’s favourite shoe shop, Russell & Bromley, has delivered a payout of £11.2m to its family owners after sales and profits boomed in 2013.
The Bromley family, which has owned the chain since it was founded 120 years ago, upped their dividend by 60% compared with 2012, after sales rose 9.5% to £117.6m in the year to 31 December 2013 and pre-tax profits increased 12.5% to £21.9m.
In-house designer Beverly Feldman has had shoes custom-made for the home secretary, who sported jewel-encrusted lace-ups to the Conservative party conference in 2013. According to the Commons register of interests the shoe chain thanked her for attracting bumper sales of its leopard heels, which she wore for her 2002 conference speech, by giving her “three pairs of Hot2Trot shoes” from a new collection.