David Beckham’s Footwork Productions Company

David Beckham’s company Footwork Productions has one of the highest profit margins of a British firm. The company is really a shopfront for his image rights and sponsorship deals and has topped a league table of companies with the biggest share of profit as a proportion of sales. For every £100 the company takes, £77.50 is profit. This is possible because it has few overheads other than staff and administrative costs. The only ‘product’ is the licensing of Beckham. Deals with Adidas, Gillette and Pepsi have helped profits grow from £2.4m in 2001 to £13.4m in 2004, outstripping the £4m annual pay Beckham receives at Real Madrid. Beckham quit as a director of the company in 2003 to become just an employee, picking up a £7.9m cheque in the process.