Julian Richer

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.

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.

According to the Sunday Times Rich List in 2019, Richer is worth £160 million.

In 2019, Richer was awarded the 'Outstanding Contribution to Retail' award by Retail Week magazine.

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.

In 2018 he funded TaxWatch which launched in October, dedicated to the research and exposure of aggressive tax avoiding corporations. Richer was appointed as a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO) 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 (circa £4 million).

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.

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 married Rosie, a fashion model, in 1982. They live near York in North Yorkshire, England.

Julian Richer LVO (born 1959) 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.

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.