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The chief executive of Marks and Spencer received the biggest pay package the retailer has awarded in a decade, taking home £4.7m as the group continued to improve its fortunes.
Chief executive Stuart Machin’s remuneration was higher than his predecessors Steve Rowe and Marc Bolland, who earned up to £2.6m a year over the past 10 years, according to the group’s annual report published on Monday.
Since Machin took the reins two years ago, he has presided over a reactivation of its food, clothing and home businesses after decades of failed reinventions, along with president Archie Norman and outgoing co-CEO Katie Bickerstaffe.
Bickerstaffe, what is resigning in July After six years with the company and two as co-director, but reporting to Machin, he qualified for “good graduate” status, the company said. He was paid £4.4m, including a salary of £767,000 for the year to the end of March and a £1.3m bonus plus share awards.
“He has played an important role in overseeing a marked improvement in business performance and moves forward with our best wishes,” M&S said in its report. Norman added that she had “brought a bolt of electricity to our process.”
Bickerstaffe, an advocate of flexible working, worked four days a week. At the time of her appointment as co-director, EM He said it would pay him a salary of £750,000, effectively making him almost £140,000 more pro rata than Machin, who was working full-time.
Last month, M&S boasted it was in “the best financial health since 1997” and posted a pre-tax and adjusted profit of £716 million for the year to March 30, beating analysts’ and regulators’ expectations. £453 million he earned the previous year. It will also pay its first full annual dividend, of 3p per share, since 2019 and re-entered the FTSE 100 last year. Shares are up about 63 percent in the past 12 months.
Machin’s £4.7m package included a salary of £818,000 and a £1.5m bonus plus share awards. For the current financial year, M&S said his annual salary would rise to £848,720 and that it intended to give him stock awards of 250 per cent of his salary, which would be linked to performance targets, “mindful of the need to incentivize the executives.” and ensure they remain aligned with the long-term interests of shareholders.” Machin had earned £2.7 million the previous year.
Both Machin and Bickerstaffe hit annual group targets to make the business more profitable, which accounted for the bulk of their bonuses.
M&S said that when it came to Machin’s salary, “he received £1.69 million this year and the remainder was a deferred variable payment which is subject to holding periods and its value depends on future share price performance.”