Tesco chief pockets £4.75m as shoppers face soaring prices
Tesco’s chief executive took home £4.75m in pay last year after being awarded the highest annual bonus by the supermarket since 2016 as pre-tax profits more than doubled as pandemic restrictions eased.
Ken Murphy’s package included a £3.21m bonus while the finance director, Imran Nawaz, earned a £1.24m bonus – taking his total to £5.4m for the year including a £3.5m “golden hello” relating to bonuses he lost out on leaving his former employer, Tate & Lyle.
Murphy, who joined the UK’s biggest supermarket chain in October 2020, could earn up to £10.7m this year, if he meets certain performance targets.
Details of the payouts come as families struggle to cope with the rising cost of living, including hefty food inflation.
The Tesco chairman, John Allan, said earlier this week that the UK was facing “real food poverty for the first time in a generation”.
Allan said some of the supermarket’s customers were asking staff to stop putting their groceries through the till once they had reached a certain total, leaving some items behind, as they ration food spending.
He argued there was as an “overwhelming case” for a windfall tax on oil and gas companies to help those suffering the most from the cost of living crisis.
Steve Golsby, the head of Tesco’s remuneration committee, said it was satisfied that the bonus payouts were “appropriate and reflect performance over the respective performance periods.
“We achieved this strong performance against a backdrop of significant change in the retail sector. Customers are faced with an increasing range of choices as to where, how and when to shop, with the Covid-19 pandemic accelerating a number of profound shifts in consumer behaviours. Our executive directors have successfully navigated this
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