Julian Richer is an English retail entrepreneur, philanthropist and author, best known as the founder and managing director of Richer Sounds, the UK's largest hi-fi retailer. Richer has gained a reputation for his motivational style of management and his philanthropic and charitable activities. According to the Sunday TimesRich List in 2019, Richer is worth £160 million.
Early life
Richer was born in St Thomas' Hospital, London, in 1959. He was at UCS Junior School from 1968 to 1972 before becoming a boarder at Clifton College in Bristol between 1972 and 1977. His parents both worked for Marks & Spencer before going on to work for themselves. His father, Percy, later qualified as a solicitor when he was 50.
Career
Richer's business career started at the age of 14 while he was still at school at Clifton College, Bristol, and he opened his first shop near London Bridge aged 19. This store in south London holds the Guinness record for the highest sales per square foot of any retail outlet in the world. Richer in the past advised some organisations including Asda on staff motivation, customer service, cultural change, communications and suggestion schemes. In March 2018 Marks & Spencer announced that he was advising them on cultural change. He holds 51% of the shares of Audio Partnership, an electronics company that designs, commissions and distributes electronics to countries around the world. He was made the youngest ever Business Communicator of the Year for 1995. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by Kingston University in January 2002 and by Bournemouth University in 2003. Richer was appointed as a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order in 2007. In November 2013, Richer announced to the press that he would bequeath 100% of the firm to a trust co-owned by employees of the company. In May 2019 Richer, then aged 60, announced that he had transferred ownership to employees by passing 60% of his shares to a trust, as well as separately paying each employee, excluding directors, a thank you bonus of £1,000 for every year of work from his own pocket to his 500+ employees who had worked an average of 8 years each. In 2019, Richer was awarded the 'Outstanding Contribution to Retail' award by Retail Week magazine.
Charitable interests
15% of the profits from Richer Sounds are donated to Richer's charitable trust, whose main areas of support include human rights and animal welfare. Richer founded ACTS435 , which was launched in December 2009 by the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, who remains a patron. Acts435 connects people in need with people who can donate. It has raised in excess of £2,000, 000 and 22,539 people have benefited from the charity which allows people to give directly to those in need. This means that 100% of funds raised by Acts435 goes to the recipients. He founded the charity ASB Help in autumn 2013 which supports victims of anti-social behaviour. Baroness Newlove, Victims’ Commissioner, endorsed ASB Help soon after, commenting “I am delighted that ASB Help has launched this service to help equip victims in the fight against anti-social behaviour." The charity’s website provides interactive guides, practical information and the necessary tools on how to effectively report anti-social behaviour. He founded Richer Unsigned, a not-for-profit designed to promote the best undiscovered music the UK has to offer. Richer Unsigned supports and promotes musicians who may just be getting started, who have been in the industry a while or simply don't have a great label deal. It currently has over 3,000 artists featured on its website. In 2018 he funded TaxWatch which launched in October, dedicated to the research and exposure of aggressive tax avoiding corporations. In November 2019 it was reported in the Sunday Telegraph that he was funding the Good Business Charter to encourage businesses to improve their behaviour, which was confirmed by Carolyn Fairbairn in a speech at the CBI's annual conference the following day. It was launched on 3 February 2020. A number of notable charities and companies have signed up, including Amnesty, Oxfam, Brompton Bicycle, London City Airport, Capita, Deloitte and the Confederation of British Industry In January 2020, Richer launched Zero Hours Justice, a campaign designed to highlight the exploitative nature of zero hour contracts and ultimately, to seek a complete ban on them. He is a vice-president of the RSPCA.
Books
Richer has written several books, including: The Richer Way, which talks about starting a business and how to motivate a workforce by getting the best out of people. The Independent described it as "one of the best business books in history" The Ethical Capitalist, which discusses the need for a new sense of moral purpose in business and how to make business work better for society. This was a Financial Times book of the month.
Personal life
Richer is married to Rosie, a fashion model. They live near York in North Yorkshire, England. Richer was baptised into the Anglican faith in 2006 by The Rev Cannon Roger Simpson at St Michael Le Belfrey, York and was confirmed later the same year by John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, in his chapel in Bishopthorpe Palace. In his spare time, Richer plays the drums in the soul/funk/pop group, Ten Millennia.
