Business

Tesco chief earns £4.6m in year where 9,000 jobs put at risk

Pay packet, which includes £1.6m bonus, is 226 times median wage of Tesco employee

Tesco recently beat forecasts to report a 28.8 per cent rise in annual pre-tax profits to £1.67 billion last year, while revenue grew 11.2 per cent to £63.9 billion.

Tue May 14 2019 - 13:34

Tesco's chief executive Dave Lewis has picked up a £4.6 million (€5.3 million) pay packet, just months after 9,000 jobs at the supermarket group were put at risk.

Mr Lewis earned a £1.6 million bonus, on top of his £1.25 million base salary and £1.3 million through the company’s long-term share plans, Tesco’s annual report showed. He also earned £313,000 in pension earnings as well as benefits, during the year. The pay package will be scrutinised at the company’s agm next month.

His pay packet is 226 times the median wage of a Tesco employee, at £20,364, the report added.

This comes months after Tesco announced in January that up to 9,000 jobs are at risk across its head office and stores as part of a major cost-cutting drive.

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Britain’s biggest supermarket chain recently beat forecasts to report a 28.8 per cent rise in annual pre-tax profits to £1.67 billion last year, while revenue grew 11.2 per cent to £63.9 billion.

Turnaround goals

The chief executive, who joined Tesco in 2014 from consumer goods giant Unilever, hailed the company's progress and said he is confident it will achieve its turnaround goals by the end of the current financial year.

However, Mr Lewis’s pay represents a fall from last year, when he received a £5.1 million package on the back of a significantly higher bonus payment.

The annual report also showed that chief financial officer Alan Stewart has received a total pay packet of £2.6 million for the year, buoyed by a £834,000 bonus.

As part of efforts to position Tesco to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing market, last year Mr Lewis forked out £3.7 billion to acquire cash-and-carry business Booker and launched Jack’s, a discount chain that will supposedly rival the German discounters. – PA

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