M&S bosses set to pocket £15m pay pot if bonus targets are hit
Top bosses at Marks & Spencer could pocket some £15m in total if they achieve bonus targets, including a 50 per cent boost for the retailer’s share price.
New CEO Stuart Machin is due to trouser a basic salary of £896,000, according to the supermarket’s annual report.
Former boss Steve Row pocketed a salary of £2.6m last year, up by £1m thanks to a £1.6m bonus. Rowe is to step down after six years at the helm of the supermarket next month and will stay on as a consultant for a year, with a pay packet of up to £843,000.
The supermarket has credited Rowe with many accomplishments, including a joint venture with Ocado, doubling clothing and home online penetration, and the revival of the food business.
Co-chief executive Katie Bickerstaffe is on £787,000, owing to working four-days a week, while chief financial officer Eoin Tonge is paid a basic salary of £739,000.
News of the top exec’s bonanza pay comes as business leader’s salaries are normalising after Covid lockdowns once more, after many CEOs took pay cuts or freezes amid the crisis.
In 2020, M&S announced it would scrap executive bonuses for the upcoming year, as well as freezing Rowe’s pay.
There were also no salary increases across the rest of the business, due to its performance the prior year and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
As well as news of the leadership team’s pay, the supermarket also stated that 4,500 store management and head office staff were to receive a bonus for the first time since 2017.
Yesterday, rival Sainsbury’s top boss Simon Roberts was revealed to have pocketed £3.8m last year, a salary that has nearly tripled and is 183 times the average salary paid by the retailer.
It comes as the supermarket has faced calls from contractors to pay the living wage, as well as its own employees, which received pay increases earlier this year.
Sainsbury’s shareholders are set to vote on a resolution at next month’s AGM, which would see the retailer pledge to pay the living wage to all its workers by July 2023.