Gender Pay Gap

We are committed to ensuring equality of opportunity, fairness of treatment, and work-life balance for all our employees, and to offering an inclusive working environment in which our employees are able to make the best use of their skills and maximise their potential, free from discrimination.  This is of crucial importance to our business.  Entry into, and progression within, our Company is determined by the individual’s ability to do the job – it’s as simple as that.

Across our business we nevertheless employ significantly more women than men.  This is not because we favour employing women over men.  Rather, it is a reflection of the retail sector as a whole, where men are typically under-represented compared to women.

The gender pay gap shows the difference between the average earnings of women and the average earnings of men.  It is expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings.  For example, a gender pay gap of 15% means that, on average, the women earn 15% less than the men.  A negative percentage means that, on average, the women earn more than the men.

It is important to understand that the gender pay gap differs from equal pay.  Equal pay is about men and women receiving the same pay and conditions for doing equal work.

In contrast, the gender pay gap shows the difference between the average earnings of men across all job roles in an organisation and the average earnings of women across all job roles in that same organisation.

At Downtown we are confident that our gender pay gap is not a consequence of men and women who do the same job being paid differently.  Rather, it is because men are under-represented in our lowest-paid roles, which is very typical of the retail sector.

Dividing our workforce as at 5 April 2026 into four, equally-sized hourly pay quarters, the proportion of men and women in each of these quarters was as follows: 

[to be shown as pie charts]

Lower Hourly Pay Quarter

83.10% women  

16.90% men

Lower Middle Hourly Pay Quarter

88.89% women

11.11% men

Upper Middle Hourly Pay Quarter

81.94% women

18.06% men

Upper Hourly Pay Quarter

41.67% women

58.33% men

[Explaining the Hourly Pay Quarters’ graphic]

As at 5 April 2026, our median gender pay gap was 8.2% and our mean gender pay gap was 17.2%.

[Please replace the table that appears at this point in last year’s report with one that has the same format of the Bonus Gender Pay Gap table (further down last year’s report) and shows the following]

[‘Explaining the Mean and the Median’ graphic]

In addition to looking at hourly rates of pay, we have scrutinised the bonus payments made to our employees during the twelve months ending on 5 April 2026.

[Bonus pie charts (please take figures from text below)]

96.2% of our male employees as at 5 April 2026 have been classed as receiving a bonus payment during the preceding twelve months.  The proportion of our female employees as at 5 April 2026 who have been classed as receiving a bonus payment during the same twelve- month period is 91.8%.

[Bonus Gender Pay Gap table (please take figures from text below)]

As at 5 April 2026, our median bonus gender pay gap was 54.0% and our mean bonus gender pay gap was 11.0%.

The data shown in this report is accurate as of 5 April 2026.  For further details of the calculations used, please see:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/gender-pay-gap-reporting-guidance-for-employers/making-your-calculations

Our Gender Pay Gap Reports for previous years are available here:

www.downtownstores.co.uk/userfiles/file/gender-pay-gap-2025-overview.pdf

www.downtownstores.co.uk/userfiles/file/gender-pay-gap-2024-overview.pdf

www.downtownstores.co.uk/userfiles/file/gender-pay-gap-2023-overview.pdf

www.downtownstores.co.uk/userfiles/file/gender-pay-gap-2022-overview-pdf.pdf

www.downtownstores.co.uk/userfiles/file/gender-pay-gap-2021-overview-pdf.pdf

www.downtownstores.co.uk/userfiles/file/gender-pay-gap-2020-overview-pdf2.pdf

www.downtownstores.co.uk/userfiles/file/gender-pay-gap-2018-overview-pdf.pdf

www.downtownstores.co.uk/userfiles/file/gender-pay-gap-2017-overview-pdf-2.pdf

The gender pay gap information for Oldrid & Co. Limited can also be found on the Government website at:

https://gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/employers/9328

I hereby confirm that the data contained within this report is accurate.