Former Musgrave executive Eoin McGettigan received €1.073 million in "compensation for loss of office" when he left the wholesale and grocery group earlier this year.

Mr McGettigan was the main executive in charge of Musgrave's €87.74 million takeover last year of the Londis chain in Britain. He resigned from Musgrave at the end of January to join the Co-operative group in Britain, but left only months later to join Dunnes Stores.

Musgrave, one of the biggest privately-held groups in Ireland, had sales last year of €3.76 billion and pretax profits of €68.5 million.

Following his departure from Musgrave, Mr McGettigan is believed to have sold his shares in the group, which owns the SuperValu and Centra supermarket brands in Ireland and the Budgens chains in Britain.

The former head of the group's British unit was not named as recipient of the compensation which was disclosed in newly filed annual accounts for Musgrave Group Plc. However, it is understood that the payment outlined in the accounts did not refer to the two other directors who left Musgrave last year, Michael Nason and M.B. Mahony.

Mr Nason became chief executive of Arnotts, the department store, but left that job last summer. His departure package from Musgrave Group was still under discussion very recently and it is unclear whether that negotiation has ended.

Musgrave declined to comment on the compensation paid to Mr McGettigan, who increased the number of ordinary shares he held in the group to 437,272 at the end of 2004 from 370,107 a year earlier.

"As a private company, Mugrave Group is not in a position to provide any further details on directors' remuneration other than the information that is already contained in our annual accounts," a spokesman said.

The accounts show that Musgrave Group increased its dividend last year to 24 cent per share from 20 cent per share in 2003. The overall value of the 2004 dividend was €14.22 million, up from €12.17 million.

The accounts show that Musgrave chairman Hugh MacKeown sold more than six million shares during 2004 to hold 622,221 at the end of the year. The consideration paid for the shares is not known.

Séamus Scally, who retired as chief executive last year, increased his stake in the company to 1.04 million ordinary shares from 954,040.

Mr McGettigan was seen as a strong contender for the chief executive post, but the job went to the group's finance director Chris Martin.

The group decided in 2004 to sell its British shop properties to independent retailers and booked a profit of €11.36 million on the disposal of certain shop properties. However, it took an €8.45 million charge on the impairment in value of tangible assets arising from a review of the carrying value for its remaining shop properties in Britain.