THE founder of Moneysupermarket.com is to receive dividends totalling more than £35m, the company said yesterday.

News of the bumper payout comes as the price comparison website is seeing signs of recovery after a tough 2009.

The Deeside firm said sales were “building momentum” so far during 2010, helped by a new advertising campaign fronted by comedian Omid Djalili.

But revenues slid 22% to £136.9m in the 12 months to the end of December, with the damage done mainly by a 44% slump in sales at its money division.

That was caused by a shift in the sales mix away from more lucrative credit products towards savings and the closure of its biggest revenue generator – Barclays’ First Plus loans arm – to new business.

Despite the slide in revenues, company founder and deputy chairman Simon Nixon will receive £35.2m in dividend pay-outs. Mr Nixon owns 52% of the business. The pay-outs represent an almost four-fold increase on the previous year’s dividend.

The firm said: “The current level of trading is consistent with the board’s view that the business has stabilised and that the worst is behind us.”

The company, based in Ewloe, near Chester, added that underlying earnings were down 26% to £36m for the year.

The group shed 80 jobs last April to cut costs, but there have been no further jobs cuts since then and the workforce remains at 450. Revenues are ahead in all of the firm’s operating businesses so far this year except travel, which has suffered as consumers rein in discretionary spending.

Company chairman Gerald Corbett said: “While 2009 was a tough year for the group, it is a measure of the resilience of the business that it was able to maintain its dividend at 2008 levels and declare two special dividends totalling £50m, giving a total dividend for the year of £68m.”

Numis analyst James Hamilton flagged up the potential for further one-off dividend pay-outs, and said there was “scope for recovery” in money revenues although he expects this to “be years, not months away”.