The influential entrepreneur behind the Richer Sounds hi-fi and electronics business Julian Richer has been awarded an honorary degree by The Open University for his contribution to British business and society.
Today, the company’s 50 stores and a thriving online business create an annual £200m turnover and Julian donates 15 per cent of this to charitable causes each year.
In 2019, he sold 60 per cent of the business to an employee-ownership trust with a personal gift of a £1,000 bonus for each year of service, which cost him £4m. He has said it was the best £4m he had ever spent.
Richer Sounds is the UK’s largest hi-fi retailer and has also been recognised by consumer association Which? as Retailer Of The Year for the past five years.
Some of the charities he founded, along with wife Rosie, provide support to a range of valuable causes: helping people affected by anti-social behaviour and those in desperate financial need.
He also founded ‘Zero Hours Justice’ to campaign against the use of zero-hours contracts imposed on workers against their will.
Upon receiving the honour at a recent graduation ceremony in Harrogate, he said it was an “amazing honour”. He continued:
“Apart from being by far the biggest university in Britain what is more important to me is, as far as I can tell, you are the most inclusive and it’s a real pleasure to be here.”
He left the graduating students with three tips:
“Be determined. You’ll note I’m a small chap. I was rubbish at sport and I’m average looking at best but I’ve always been very determined and I strongly recommend that you keep going until you hit a wall and certainly that’s my mantra and it hasn’t done me any harm.
“Humility – I’m sure you are much cleverer than the bosses you are about to go and work for but keep that to yourself and just demonstrate it by your energy and determination and effort.”
His third tip was this:
“I’ve been in business for 50 years and I’ve been through a lot of ups and down, crises and recessions like the one we’re in now, and business can get very tough.
“I’ve learned a lot in these 50 years but the overall thing I’ve learned is that it’s all about the people. What I mean by that is that you will observe a hugely different output from people depending on how you treat them. I couldn’t emphasise that enough. What goes around comes around. Be nice to people.”
