DFS did remarkably well through the downturn, but how much will Richard Baker tinker with the formula?

DFS issued full year results today, and they were remarkably strong given how brutal it’s been in the home furnishing market. Sales in the year to the end of July were up 13% and EBITDA up 10.6% (no pre-tax profit figure was given).

For most of the period our regular columnist Lord Graham Kirkham was still in charge, but in April he sold the business - by phone while at the North Pole with his pal Malcolm Walker of Iceland - to Advent International, who put former Boots boss Richard Baker in as chairman. Baker has subsequently appointed his former Boots colleague Ian Filby as chief executive.

Kirkham built a fantastic business at DFS. It dominates its category, is impressively vertically integrated and has a really powerful brand, built by Kirkham’s gargantuan spend on advertising. And that’s enabled it to consolidate its dominant position in the sofa market while its competitors have fallen by the wayside.

But it was built very much in his image - legend has it that the infamously corny ads (remember Tom, Jilly and the helicopter landing in the car park, dropping off Michael Aspel) were all signed off by Kirkham himself, a symbol of his very hands-on management style.

As with any other private equity deal, Advent’s purchase of DFS will have been predicated on significant growth, both in store numbers and by developing an online proposition. Baker and Filby did a great job of modernising Boots ahead of its takeover by Stefano Pessina, and it’s hard to imagine that, once a bit of time has passed, they won’t set to work on bringing DFS a little more up to date as they prepare for growth. But as very talented retailers, they’ll also know that the key to success will be retaining the best of Kirkham’s legacy at the same time.