The proportion of British retailers with all-White boards has risen this year in a setback for an industry trying to improve diversity, a new report has found.
Of the 200 retailers studied, the percentage of White-only boards of non-executives rose from 30% in 2023 to 35% in 2024, according to findings published Wednesday by the British Retail Consortium and the MBS Group, an executive search firm.
More than half, 53%, of the retailers polled had no ethnic diversity in their executive committees, up from 49% the year before.
The retailers with zero or little ethnic diversity tended to be smaller businesses, with only four or five seats on the board, the group added. The loss of ethnically diverse leaders at these smaller companies increased the overall proportion of all-White boards.
Still, there was progress according to another measure, with the proportion of ethnic minority board members rising from 10% in 2023 to 12% now, driven by larger companies appointing additional diverse members to their boards.
Retailers are struggling to improve diversity in some other areas, however. Only 11% of respondents could identify a disabled senior leader in their business, down from 17% last year.
“Inclusion is the nut the industry still needs to crack,” said Helen Dickinson, chief executive officer of the BRC. “There needs to be greater focus on initiatives to change workplace culture to ensure we see this shift.”
Progress has been made in the retail industry with gender representation at senior levels. Women made up more than 42% of non-executive board positions in 2024, up from 38% the year before.
“Ownership structure does affect how seriously businesses are taking diversity and inclusion,” said Elliott Goldstein, managing Partner at MBS in a call. “The listed companies within our sector, it’s part of their corporate being. For some of the private equity and private companies, possibly less so.”
The study was conducted between February and May.