Boohoo boss named in Sunday Times Rich List

Mr Mahmud Kamani and his family are said to be worth £1bn – a staggering increase of £268m. in his worth from last year, surpassing even the wealth of former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney.

That increase is partly down to the huge growth that boohoo has experienced in recent times, not least becoming the biggest employer in Burnley with around 1,400 people working at its distribution centre and offices on the Hesandford Industrial Estate.

The site saw a second huge warehouse built in recent months.

Mr Kamani, who founded boohoo with entrepreneur Carol Kane in 2006, has seen the discount retailer boom, evidenced by its increasing presence of huge warehouses appearing on the Burnley skyline.

Boohoo, which now also runs boohooMAN.com and PrettyLittleThing.com, was floated on the stock market in 2014, when it was valued at £560m. It was said to be worth about £2bn as of April 2017.

However, it has not all been plain sailing for the company which came under criticism last year for its working practices following an undercover investigation by the Channel Four Dispatches programme.

The programme appeared to show examples of staff at its Burnley depot being given two 30-minute breaks, one of which was unpaid, per 12-hour shift.

There were also claims some workers had to walk up to 25 miles during a shift.

Boohoo bosses responded that the wellbeing of its employees remained a top priority, which was again stressed when the Burnley Express and other media and council bosses were invited to view the company’s new facilities in February.