The Garfield Weston Foundation has reaped a £42m benefit from the profit rise of Wittington Investments, the holding company of the Weston family which is behind businesses including the Primark retail chain.

Wittington’s profit rose from £585m to £601m in September 2012, prompting it to pay out £51m in dividends – up from £21m in 2011 – from which £42.23m went to the Foundation.

The Garfield Weston Foundation is a charitable trust, established in 1958 by the late W. Garfield Weston. On average, approximately 1,500 organisations across the UK benefit each year from grants made by the Foundation, including arts and education charities as well as London’s British Museum and the Royal Opera House. To date, the Foundation has donated more than £680m.

The Foundation holds 683,073 shares in Wittington Investments, representing 79.2 per cent of the company’s issued share capital, and is therefore the company’s ultimate controlling party.

Garfield Weston was the founder of Associated British Foods (ABF), the FTSE 100 conglomerate that owns Primark, Silver Spoon sugar, Twinings tea and Kingsmill bread.