Premier Foods and Sainsbury bosses get bonus boost

Premier Foods ceo Gavin Darby was awarded a bonus of £598,500 representing 57% of his bonus opportunity in respect of the manufacturer’s past financial year. That compared with his bonus of £307,000 for the 15-month period ended April 4 2015 for 2014/2015.

The firm’s annual report 2015/16 covering the 52 weeks to April 2 2016, also confirmed Darby had elected not to take a pay increase on his basic salary.

It is the second year that the Premier Foods boss had decided not to take the increase. His salary has remained the same since his appointment in 2013, the annual report said.

Basic salary of £700,000

Darby received a basic salary for the period of £700,000 a year and a salary supplement in lieu of pension of 20% of base salary.

Premier Foods, which boasts brands such as Bisto and Mr Kipling, revealed increased revenue to £771.7M from £767.4M and trading profit remained the same at £131M.

In the report, Darby said: “The progress we made in 2015/16 demonstrates that our growth strategy is working. Where we’ve focused investment, we’re delivering results.

“This gives us a solid platform from which to accelerate future growth. Overall I believe we delivered a solid set of results in a challenging market.”

Bonus of £767K

Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s ceo Mike Coupe received a bonus of £767,000 for the 52 weeks to March 12 2016. His overall salary – including benefits, shares and pension – increased to £2.8M from £1.5M for the 2014/15 period.

Sainsbury said the increase in the basic salary for Coupe from £801,000 to £916,000 reflected his promotion to ceo on July 9 2014.

In its annual report, Sainsbury revealed that underlying profit before tax hit £587M, down 13.8%; like-for-like retail sales were down by 0.9%, including VAT and excluding fuel.

Read why Shore Capital director and head of research Clive Black judged Sainsbury’s latest results to be “far from a car crash”.

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