Chairman’s statement Personally, and on behalf of the Board, I would like to thank all our Dunelm colleagues, leaders and our supplier partners for their hard work, dedication and agility. Dunelm is emerging from the pandemic as a stronger business, with a clear and engaging Moving purpose, ambitious to deliver for all our stakeholders and an even more exciting future ahead. As the pandemic began we were developing our digital platform and have emerged as a proven multichannel retailer. Our enhanced customer proposition means we are fully equipped to continue to win market share. forward The investments we had made to develop ourdigital capabilities enabled us to respond quicklyto the increased demand online, includingthrough our successful Click & Collect proposition,which continued to offer customers safe, local,convenient and friendly service throughout mostof the restricted trading periods. as a stronger Overall, Dunelm delivered a remarkably strong performance during FY21, with good progress business across all our financial and non-financialperformance indicators, despite the extended periods of store closures. This financial year was dominated by DELIVERING FOR ALL OUR the Covid pandemic, which provided STAKEHOLDERS an enormous multi-dimensional Living and working through the pandemic has challenge for our business, our reaffirmed our belief that being a purpose-led business that delivers for all our stakeholders colleagues and our partners. Our is critical for our continued success. deeply rooted Dunelm shared values have continued to guide our actions The Board has been particularly mindful that our decisions and actions must always balance the and I am very proud of how the needs of our customers, colleagues, communities, business has met these challenges, suppliers and shareholders, as well as wider society and the environment. delivering to the very best of our abilities for all our stakeholders. Through the year our customer experience was significantly enhanced, whilst maintaining the health and safety of colleagues and customers as the number one priority. We have provided job security, training and development for over 10,000 colleagues and created over 700 new roles as we enact our ambitious plans for the future. We paid a second special ‘thank you’ bonus to colleagues in August 2021, reflecting the significant role they played in driving exceptional performance against this challenging backdrop. We worked closely with our committed and long-term suppliers to enable significant growth, supporting our ambitions as the 1st choice retailer for homewares in the UK. We deepened our relationships with local communities mainly through our store community Facebook groups, but also through our charitable partnerships with Macmillan at a national level and many other local organisations. We have continued to pay all our suppliers and landlords in full, throughout the Covid crisis. We also took the decision to repay the monies we received in FY20 under the Job Retention Scheme Andy Harrison and did not make any claims under that scheme Chairman 12 DUNELM GROUP PLC ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS 2021