SOME GOOD news from the battered Irish retail sector. About 1,500 Tesco staff in Ireland will shortly receive their share of a €5.4 million windfall from the multiple’s Save As You Earn Scheme.

Tesco runs three- and five-year savings schemes that allow staff to save between €12 and €80 a month buying shares in the company, which are priced at the outset of the period.

The latest schemes matured on February 1st. In terms of the five-year plan, a rough calculation indicates that those who saved at the maximum level will have netted just more than €8,500 while staff on the minimum amount get just shy of €1,266.

These shares were priced at £2.32 at the start of the savings period and closed at £4.22 by maturity. For those on the three- year scheme, the share price was £3.07 at the outset.

Those with three-year savings will get anything from about €570 to €3,700. All of these sums are subject to capital gains tax on any profits that accrued on their savings.

Overall, 55,000 Tesco staff in Britain and Ireland shared £114 million between them in the latest payout.

One of those sure to have benefited from the scheme is Gary Mills, who has worked for Tesco since 1997 and was recently appointed as operations director for the entire island of Ireland. Based in Belfast, Mills was the face of Tesco in Northern Ireland for the past 13 years and also worked for Stewarts.

He replaces Steve Leach, who was store operations and logistics director at Tesco Ireland and has taken a role with the company in Asia.