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Graham Kirkham, Lord Kirkham - From Wikipedia

Graham Kirkham, Lord Kirkham CVO (born 14 December 1944 in Doncaster), is an English businessman famous for founding sofa retailer Dfs.

Currently Executive Chairman of DFS Furniture Company Ltd, Kirkham is a strong political and financial supporter of the Conservative Party, and is one of South Yorkshire's richest men, with a personal fortune estimated at £315m.

Biography

Adopted at the age of three weeks, he is the only son of Edlington miner Tom Kirkham and his wife Elsie: "My whole life has been the luck of going to a good family."

After passing the Eleven plus exam, he attended Maltby Grammar School and hoped to join the Royal Air Force as a pilot. Failing to get the required five O levels, Kirkham got a job in a local furniture store.

Northern Upholstery

In 1969 aged 22, Kirkham was married with two children, which he describes as great motivation.

Having visited a few manufacturers in his daily work, he decided that making furniture was relatively easy and that by cutting out the warehouse dealers in the middle of the supply chain, he could sell direct to the public at cheaper prices. Kirkham rented a room above a snooker hall in Carcroft, and started making furniture upstairs and retailing it downstairs.

Dfs

By 1983, Darley Dale–based Direct Furnishing Supplies had become one of Northern Upholstery biggest suppliers. When Direct Furnishing Supplies went bankrupt with debts of £900,000 on a turnover of £3,000,000, Kirkham bought it. Northern Upholstery now renamed itself DFS and at the time had a total of 63 stores employing 2,000 staff.

In 1993, DFS was floated on the stock market and valued at £271 million, with Kirkham and his family trusts owning just over half of the shares. This brought the Kirkham family to the attention of thieves, who in 1994 broke into the family home at Sprotborough while they were on holiday. The burglars bound and gagged the housekeeper and made off with money and jewels worth £2.4m - later recovered, but still South Yorkshire's largest armed robbery.

In 1998 DFS announced its first drop in profits in 28 years to the London Stock Exchange. The company found a third of customers admitted to a leather fetish, and so repitched its advertising from a middle aged couple to lithesome blondes and brunette models draped over sofas, and a billboard of a model covering up her breasts with flowers on a DFS armchair. In 2000 DFS announced a 79 per cent profit increase.

But the revival was short lived, and in light of the continuing prevalence for private equity, Kirkham took the chain private again, leveraging his family's own 9.46% stake with £150 million of family funds[3] in an eventual £496 million deal. Kirkham told the Yorkshire Post: "It's something that's caused me fitful sleep in the time I've been thinking about it. I've no hobby, this is my hobby – it's what I do. I'm an entrepreneur. It's almost as if I can feel the adrenaline running through my veins."

Politics

Kirkham is well known for his support for the Conservative Party. By 1996 he had lent the party £4 million in an interest free loan,[7] and in the New Years Honours List was given a knighthood. John Prescott, then in opposition called it: "the crudest example yet of honours given for financial services to the Tory Party." Kirkham responded that the honour was for his charitable work for The Duke of Edinburgh's Award and the Animal Health Trust.[2] In September 1996 Kirkham told The Daily Telegraph that his donations were not "anything at all like that sort of magnitude", and that the £4m had in fact been a loan to the party from his son Michael which was repaid a few weeks later.

Kirkham gave £200,000 to Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex's Ardent TV company in 1994 because he had "a burning desire to succeed".

In June 1999, Kirkham was made a life peer as Baron Kirkham, of Old Cantley in the County of South Yorkshire.[9]. He was one of the working peers recommended by then Tory leader William Hague who had borrowed Kirkham's helicopter for electioneering.

Charity

Kirkham has given generously to charity, allocating grants totalling £455,000 in 1998/99.[10] Among his charitable donations made mainly via the Graham Kirkham Foundation,[11] Kirkham gave £225,000 to help cancer research by Bradford University, had a gallery named after him at the River and Rowing Museum in Henley on Thames, and is also Deputy Patron and a member of the board of Outward Bound trustees.

Personal life

Kirkham married Pauline Fisher in 1965 The couple have daughter Julie Ann Kirkham (born December 13, 1970), and son Sean Michael Kirkham (born August 9, 1972).

Kirkham has two houses in his native South Yorkshire, one in Cadeby Road, Sprotborough; and Grade II-listed Georgian mansion Cantley Hall which he bought in 1990 from motor dealer John Carnell.[2] Neighbours have complained about both a wall Kirkham built to protect his privacy, as well as noise from a 1998 fireworks party at which the singer was Elaine Paige.

Kirkham furnishes his homes using DFS sofas, as well as old master paintings including John Constable's View of the Stour (bought for £6.7m[14]) and Thomas Gainsborough's Peasants Going To Market (bought for £3.5m). In 1997 Kirkham lent works by Édouard Manet and Orazio Gentileschi to the Getty Center in Brentwood, Los Angeles.

"Road rage" case

In April 2008, Lord Kirkham was involved in an altercation with another motorist in an alleged road rage incident. Charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm were subsequently brought against him. In court in December 2008, Lord Kirkham denied the charges, and claimed that while he was "not proud" of what had happened, it was he who had been the victim of a road rage attack.

Awards

* 1995 - Knighthood
* 1995 - Honorary Member of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
* 1997 - Honorary Fellow of the Animal Health Trust
* 1997 - Honorary Doctorate from Bradford University
* 1999 - made a Life Peer as Baron Kirkham
* 2001 - CVO
* 2004 - Yorkshire Television accolade of "Yorkshire Man of the Year"

Styles and Titles

* Mr Graham Kirkham (1944–1995)
* Sir Graham Kirkham (1995–1999)
* The Rt. Hon. The Lord Kirkham (1999–2001)
* The Rt. Hon. The Lord Kirkham, CVO (2001–)

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World Business Briefing | Europe: Britain: DFS Accepts Founder's Bid - Graham Kirkham, Lord Kirkham

Published: Friday, July 23, 2004 - nytimes.com

DFS Furniture, Britain's largest upholstered-furniture retailer, agreed to be bought by its chairman, Graham Kirkham, for £496 million ($914 million) after the company's 59-year-old founder increased his offer a second time. Lord Kirkham, who started the Doncaster, England-based company in 1969, raised his bid by 10 pence a share to 445 pence, to include money due from the settlement of a tax dispute, according to the Regulatory News Service. That was 7.2 percent more than an initial 415 pence-a-share offer he made in March. Lord Kirkham has cited increasing competition as the reason for taking the company private. DFS in April said annual profit will fall almost 10 percent as British clothing retailers like Next and the Marks & Spencer Group add furniture lines and some mass retailers cut prices.

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Latest News and Features: Famous Doncastrian: - Graham Kirkham, Lord Kirkham

Lord Graham Kirkham

Probably one of the richest local businessmen and entrepreneurs as founder and executive chairman of the family run and Carcroft-based furniture group DFS. Graham is also known for his donations to the conservative party.

Lord Kirkham founded the company 34 years ago, making furniture above a shop in Carcroft and selling it downstairs. He became a multi-millionaire when he sold almost half the business in the float. It is now worth around £450m and his stake, after selling shares over the years, is some 10 per cent.

Lord Kirkham told the Yorkshire Post "It's something that's caused me fitful sleep in the time I've been thinking about it. I've no hobby, this is my hobby – it's what I do. I'm an entrepreneur. It's almost as if I can feel the adrenaline running through my veins."

PARENTS
Son of Tom and Elsie Kirkham

DATE OF BIRTH
14 December 1944

MARITAL DETAILS
Married Pauline Fisher 1965 (1 son and 1 daughter)

EDUCATED
Maltby Grammar School

PROFESSION
Executive Chairman, DFS Furniture Company Plc,
Founded Company in 1969,
Listed on UK Stock Exchange 1993

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Outlook: Just say no to Graham Kirkham (Lord Kirkham)'s insulting DFS bid

Sinking feeling; Strip stamping

By Jeremy Warner

Friday, 5 March 2004
The Independent Close - independent.co.uk

There ought to be a listing rule which prevents managements from bidding to take their own companies private. The latest example of the genre is Graham Kirkham, chairman of DFS Furniture, who yesterday made an indicative offer of £445m for the company he first floated in November 1993. Every time these public to private offers happen, the management's position immediately becomes riddled with conflict of interest and therefore quite untenable. Who's Lord Kirkham now working for: the shareholders or himself? Anyone reading his statement yesterday would not have been left in any doubt. Abandon all hope, Lord Kirkham told his shareholders. The future's grim, so your best bet is to accept my offer.

There ought to be a listing rule which prevents managements from bidding to take their own companies private. The latest example of the genre is Graham Kirkham, chairman of DFS Furniture, who yesterday made an indicative offer of £445m for the company he first floated in November 1993. Every time these public to private offers happen, the management's position immediately becomes riddled with conflict of interest and therefore quite untenable. Who's Lord Kirkham now working for: the shareholders or himself? Anyone reading his statement yesterday would not have been left in any doubt. Abandon all hope, Lord Kirkham told his shareholders. The future's grim, so your best bet is to accept my offer.

From putting the best possible gloss on the company's prospects, Lord Kirkham has swung full circle to paint it as absolutely dire. Had he said the company was only a couple of sandwiches short of the bankruptcy courts, he could scarcely have been more negative about the outlook. "Over the last two years the market has become much more competitive.... I do not believe this is temporary, but represents a structural change ... conditions in our market will become ever more demanding".

Goodness me, what a whinger he must be. Lord Kirkham is, of course, right about the market becoming more competitive. Suddenly everyone's moving into home furnishings, and quite a few of the newcomers, from M&S to Argos, Next and MFI, are driving straight on to DFS's lawn as a specialist in upholstered furniture. Even so, there is nothing unique about the structural changes going on in furniture retailing. All industries are becoming much more competitive. The art of good management is to meet that challenge head on, change, adapt and find new markets and fashions to expand into. What Lord Kirkham is preaching in an effort to persuade his shareholders to sell is a strategy of despair.

No shareholder can surely take him seriously. Lord Kirkham and his family today own less than 10 per cent of the company, having taken more than £400m out of the business in the 10 years since it was floated. He has no sitting tenancy rights, nor by the look of it is the business going to suffer if he is forced to up sticks and retire to the golf course. His 415p-a-share offer is an insult to fair value, and shareholders should politely tell him to go take a hike.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with DFS's competitive position which decent management couldn't fix. Lord Kirkham says the company would be better able to deal with all the new competition as a private company, free from the need to continue to deliver consistent growth in sales, earnings, and dividends. Poppycock. Like most private equity bids, Lord Kirkham's offer is a highly leveraged transaction, consisting of £150m of family equity with the balance of the funding provided in debt by Nomura. What other way is there of servicing and paying down all that debt other than through growth of sales, earnings and dividends?

Shareholders deserve more than Lord Kirkham's negative carping and, by the look of the share price yesterday, which by the close stood at a 28p premium to the value of his bid, they are determined to get it.

Sinking feeling

Who would be a cross-Channel ferry operator? That old sea dog Lord Sterling of Plaistow has axed the Boulogne route, cut capacity on Dover-Calais and persuaded the authorities to let him merge with his direct competitor Stena, and yet the view from the poop deck of the good ship P&O looks as grim as ever.

For a business which turns over £1bn a year, margins were always painfully thin even in the good old days before the arrival of the Channel Tunnel, but now they have turned to losses of £40m and further surgery is on the way. One ship has been dropped from the short-sea crossing altogether, and on others the restaurants no longer open at nights.

P&O blames the dismal performance of its ferry business on everything from the warm weather to the dastardly French interfering with the booze cruisers by slapping a 40 per cent tax on tobacco. Even Sars gets an honourable mention.

But the main reason for P&O's sea sickness is competition from the tunnel and the low-cost airlines, which forces the ferries to slash prices to the bone in the low season or risk losing custom. Even so, the company lost a further one million passengers last year.

The ferries make up for it in the high-season by gouging their customers for all they are worth, as anyone who books a crossing to France in the school holidays soon discovers. But this is not enough to compensate for the huge fixed overheads, which sink the economics of the industry below the water-line the rest of the time.

The cross-Channel financial pain is not confined to the ferries. Eurotunnel too is now in such dire straits financially that it has been forced to go cap in hand to the UK and French governments seeking a bail-out. Lord Sterling's first instinct would normally be to complain loud and long. But the effect of driving the tunnel into the arms of its bankers would only be to allow Eurotunnel to cut its shuttle fares even further, increasing the distress felt by the ferry operators.

It is not quite sink or swim time and Lord Sterling insists that he neither plans to demerge, sell or close down the ferries. But losses on this scale cannot be tolerated indefinitely. Fortunately, the upturn in world trade means that P&O's container ports business is booming again, but it's not much of a consolation for those still working the ferries.

Strip stamping

TO STRIP stamp, or not to strip stamp? That's one of the questions facing the Chancellor as he puts the finishing touches to this year's Budget. The Treasury reckons to lose £600m a year in revenue from the smuggling of spirits alone. Add in tobacco, and the numbers get much bigger still. One solution to the problem, the Treasury thinks, is to force the industry to strip stamp every bottle of spirits on which the duty has been paid, in the way some Continental countries do. A strip stamp is a coded paper seal that goes over the bottle cap. Bottles that are not correctly strip stamped then become immediately suspect, enabling Customs and Excise and trading standards officers to crack down on any retailer that sells them.

In the pre-Budget report last December, the Chancellor said he would introduce strip stamping by 2006 unless the industry could come up with a viable alternative by this year's Budget. Hold on, said the industry. That's an outrageously short notice period and, anyway, wouldn't it be better if Customs and Excise simply did its job and stamped out the smugglers? Well, the Budget is nearly upon us, and despite offers by the industry to co-operate fully with Customs in detailing all distributors to which duty-free spirits are shipped, an alternative has yet to be agreed.

One hi-tech solution would be the use of authenticators, a small, handheld spectrometer which is already used by the industry to address the problem of counterfeit, branded spirits. By adding a trace element to the spirit, the authenticator could immediately tell whether it was duty paid or not. Promoters argue the authenticator is likely to be a much more effective tool than strip stamping, which hardened smugglers would soon find a way of replicating. The draw back is that it would be relatively expensive, and that the cost of it would be loaded on to Customs and Excise. By contrast, the cost of strip stamping would be born by the industry.

So if strip stamping is now unavoidable, what can the industry expect by way of compensation? Rien, would be the Chancellor's usual response. However, there's just a chance Mr Brown might again be persuaded to freeze the duty on spirits. He did last year, and he is a Scot. For the Scotch whisky industry, it would seem a reasonable trade. I'm not so sure about the Chancellor's end of the bargain, for it is not at all certain strip stamping will work.

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Graham Kirkham (Lord Kirkham) cleared of 'road rage' attack

telegraph.co.uk

Lord Kirkham, the multi-millionaire boss of furniture giant DFS, was cleared of an alleged road rage attack on a fellow motorist.

Last Updated: 7:17PM GMT 22 Dec 2008
DFS boss Lord Kirkham: cleared of 'road rage' attack
Lord Kirkham wished the 12 jurors a Merry Christmas as he left court Photo: Marina Imperi

A jury at Doncaster Crown Court took just over two hours to find the 64-year-old life peer not guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm on council engineer Keith Pearce.

The court heard how the charge arose from an altercation between the two men as they were both driving to work in April in the South Yorkshire village of Sprotbrough, where Lord Kirkham has lived for more than 30 years.

After he was cleared, Lord Kirkham stepped out of the dock and sat in the well of the court where he mouthed "Thank you" to each of the 12 jurors as they left the court.

After he left the hearing, he said: "Justice has been done, the jury system works."

He beamed as he thanked everyone for their "professionalism", including security guards and canteen staff, before wishing everyone around him a "Merry Christmas."

"I've always believed in the British justice system - the jury system," he said.

"To be found not guilty by 12 people is absolutely magnificent."

Asked whether he should have been prosecuted in the first place, Lord Kirkham said: "I understand how these things do work. It's been dealt with properly."

During the three-day trial, the jury of seven men and five women heard that the peer was on his way to catch a helicopter flight to London when he encountered Mr Pearce at a road junction just a short distance from his home.

Mr Pearce, who is an engineer with Doncaster Council, told the court he was attacked by Lord Kirkham after the businessman pulled in front of him and blocked his way with his luxury Mercedes.

But Lord Kirkham took to the witness box to give a completely different version of events to the jury.

He said he had stopped to let Mr Pearce's Fiat Punto out of a junction and was surprised when his apparent generosity was greeted with abuse from the other motorist.

He said the engineer drove on but the Punto then stopped abruptly in front of his Mercedes, forcing him to pull alongside him to avoid a collision.

Lord Kirkham told the court he then made a "terrible mistake" by getting out of his car to remonstrate with the other man.

But, he said, before he had time to say anything, he was attacked by Mr Pearce, who started kicking him.

Lord Kirkham said the two men began grappling and he found himself in a neck-lock, being strangled.

He said the injuries to Mr Pearce's face must have been caused as the life peer tried to defend himself.

The short incident stopped when a teacher who had got out of her vehicle told the two men to "pack it in".

Lord Kirkham then got in his car and drove off to his meeting.

The court heard Lord Kirkham's rags-to-riches story of how he was adopted as a baby by a Doncaster coal miner and his wife and then started his furniture business in 1969 in a disused billiard hall near Doncaster.

He said he bought the DFS business in 1983 and was still a "hands-on" boss.

He told the jury how he had written advertising copy on the morning he gave his evidence.

Asked about his current role he said: "I am the boss - I lead from the front."

He said he had had some serious heart surgery in recent years and had been told not to exert himself.

He also said he had not been in a fight since he had been at school.

The court heard that Kirkham was knighted in 1996, made a peer in 1999 for his services to charity and made a Companion of the Victorian Order in 2001.

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No gloom for DFS as founder Graham Kirkham (Lord Kirkham) takes £46m dividend

By Richard Fletcher - telegraph.co.uk
Last Updated: 12:51AM BST 06 Jun 2008

Lord Kirkham, founder of furniture chain DFS
Lord Kirkham has completed a successful refinancing

Lord Kirkham, founder of furniture chain DFS, collected a £46.3m dividend last year as the privately-owned retailer shrugged off the consumer downturn.

The £46.3m payment to Lord Kirkham and his family is revealed in accounts filed by Britain's largest furniture retailer at Companies House this week. According to the accounts, turnover at DFS increased to £611m in the year to July 28, 2007, up from £575m the year before. But pre-tax profit fell to £15.7m, down from £19.6m the year before. Operating profit was flat at £57.1m.

"DFS has once again achieved satisfactory results in what has remained a highly competitive trading environment," wrote Lord Kirkham in the directors' report, noting that costs had "increased significantly".

In 2004, Lord Kirkham, the adopted son of a miner, borrowed almost £400m from Nomura to buy out fellow shareholders in DFS which he founded in 1969 as Northern Upholstery with £400 of his own savings.

The controversial buyout, which put a value of £496m on the furniture retailer, ended a sometimes turbulent relationship with City investors - criticism from commentators and analysts claiming shareholders were being short-changed, forced Lord Kirkham to raise his offer on two occasions. At the time, Lord Kirkham said: "The market has got tougher and I think we could do better without transparency and two meetings a year allowing our rivals to copy and plagiarise."

According to the accounts, which have been filed by DFS's parent company, Lord Kirkham has completed a successful refinancing with new loans which will be repaid over the next five to nine years.

During the period two new stores were opened, for a total of 77. The group's three UK-based factories were reorganised increasing capacity in line with anticipated demand. The number of people employed by DFS rose to 2,714.

"Plans for further store openings are in the pipeline, continuing our strategy of prudent and profitable expansion," wrote Lord Kirkham.

Lord Kirkham owns 8.3m shares in DFS. The remaining 1.7m shares are owned by his daughter and a family trust. Lord Kirkham made an estimated £135m when he floated DFS in 1993.

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Multimillionaire peer Graham Kirkham (Lord Kirkham) is cleared of road rage attack on council worker

Russell Jenkins - timesonline.co.uk

The multimillionaire founder of the DFS furniture chain was cleared yesterday of assaulting a fellow motorist.

Lord Kirkham, 64, a Tory donor, was said to have scratched, clawed and punched Keith Pearce, 50, a council engineer, during an attack in April in Sprotbrough, South Yorkshire, where Lord Kirkham lives.

The peer insisted that he was the victim and that it was Mr Pearce who had come at him kicking and then trying to put him in a headlock.

He had been driving his Mercedes to catch a helicopter to a meeting. He said that he smiled at the driver of a red Fiat Punto after stopping to let him out of a junction but the driver responded by mouthing words like “fat git” and “flash t**t” at him.

The jury at Doncaster Crown Court took two hours to find the peer not guilty of assault causing actual bodily harm. After the hearing Lord Kirkham thanked each member of the jury and said: “Justice has been done. The jury system works.” As he left court, he said that he did not want to discuss the incident but he thanked everyone for their professionalism, including security guards and canteen staff, before wishing everyone a merry Christmas.

Mr Pearce told the court that Lord Kirkham pulled in front of him, blocked his way and attacked him. But the peer said that he had stopped to let the Fiat Punto out of a junction and was surprised when his generosity was greeted with abuse. He said the Punto then stopped abruptly in front of his Mercedes, forcing him to pull alongside to avoid a collision. He went to remonstrate with the other man but, he said, before he had time to say anything, Mr Pearce started kicking him.

Lord Kirkham said that the injuries to Mr Pearce’s face must have been caused as he tried to defend himself.

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Graham Kirkham (Lord Kirkham): There’s an art to good business

9 October, 2008
As Damien Hirst’s recent auction showed, thinking outside the box is key to making money

Searching for a bit of cheery news, I thought of the most successful sale of 2008, Damien Hirst’s Beautiful Inside My Head Forever auction.

With truly mega chutzpah, it went ahead on the very day that Lehman Brothers sent the world’s financial markets off the clock by filing for bankruptcy. In 24 hours the sale obliterated all records, raising an incredible£111 million; most going straight into the pocket of Hirst, that marketing genius and art maestro.

As a long time art collector, I have been attracted by paintings across the gamut of four centuries, including Picasso and Bacon, but have never quite got the appeal of Hirst.

No doubt it is me that is out of step. At a time when many are struggling to sell things that can be eaten, worn, driven or sat upon, even when they really are “priced to go”, we must surely bow our heads in honour to any man who can persuade someone to pay£10.3 million for a dead bull in a glass case full of dangerous chemicals. There are lessons there.

Lateral thinking for a start. Hirst innovatively produces his work with a huge team manning a sort of art factory. Also, choosing the right people to work with and for you is handy. He picked a brilliant, hungry and unconventional business manager in Frank Dunphy, who started as an accountant in London showbiz looking after speciality acts including jugglers, acrobats, clowns and circus dwarfs – acts that in the early 1960s included Coco the clown, Julie Mendez and her performing python and Peaches Page, the first nude dancer to tour Britain.

Hirst also secured the backing of two of the world’s most charismatic and connected art dealers, Jay Jopling in London and Larry “Go-Go” Gagosian in New York.

Then, as ever, it’s about location. Choosing Sotheby’s in London to hold his sale hit the right time zone and enabled Hirst to ride on its global reputation as well as his own. He also displayed fantastic attention to detail, personally designing the auction rooms and creating the sale title.

Over the past few years Hirst has been built into a phenomenal global brand, appealing to new money in show business, pop music and fashion, as well as the emerging economies of Russia and the Middle East.

Art has performed phenomenally well as a long-term investment – understandable with old masters where scarcity underpins their value. Hirst’s prolific product effectively rolls off a production line yet, mind-bogglingly, he still managed to shift 98 per cent of the 223 lots on offer at better than expected prices.

People will still be talking about Damien Hirst 50 years from now, though maybe more about his business skills than as an artist. If we want to emulate his success, we need to capture people’s imaginations too – think outside the box and be bold.

We must choose our people wisely, not always looking for the conventional. And we must exude total belief in our brand, not letting a little hiccup like the meltdown of the world financial system distract us from the beautiful art of making lots and lots of money.

Lord Kirkham, Chairman, DFS

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Graham Kirkham (Lord Kirkham) accused of road rage assault

Tory peer and millionaire founder of furniture company DFS Lord Kirkham (pictured) has been accused of punching and clawing a man in an alleged bout of road rage.

Lord Kirkham - or Baron Kirkham of Old Cantley to give him his full title - was driving to work earlier this year when he had a near miss with a Fiat Punto driven by council engineer Keith Pearce. A court was told yesterday that Kirkham then got out of his car, shouting and swearing, before attacking Pearce and wrestling him to the ground.

Onlooker Hazel Hansford described how Kirkham "just went beserk" whil Pearce said he was left "shaky and upset... there was blood on my face and in my eyes." He was treated at Doncaster Royal Infirmary for two black eyes, scratching and bruising.

Lord Kirkham owns Grade II listed Georgian mansion Cantley Hall in Doncaster, and last year picked up £46m in DFS share profits. He gave the Tory party a £4m interest free loan in 1996, and was made a life peer in 1999.

The case continues, with Kirkham denying assault causing actual bodily harm.

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DFS founder Graham Kirkham (Lord Kirkham) to buy retail park

15:44 | 05.03.09
By Laura Chesters - propertyweek.com

Lord Kirkham, founder of furniture chain DFS, has agreed to buy Hercules Unit Trust’s Cortonwood retail park for around £40m.

Lord Kirkham’s property company is thought to have exchanged on the purchase to buy Cortonwood Retail Park in South Yorkshire for £42m, reflecting a 7.7% yield.

Hercules Unit Trust is thought to have exchanged on two deals this week and has a further two under offer.

For further details see Property Week tomorrow.

Once all the deals complete the Schroders-managed retail warehouse fund advised by British Land, will be able to pay down some of its debt and reduce its gearing.

All parties declined to comment. It is thought Wilkinson Williams advised Hercules.