Marks & Spencer’s senior executives are getting bonuses for the first time in two years, after a pick-up in performance at the embattled retailer.
All bonuses were cancelled in 2014 after M&S reported its third straight year of falling profits. The decision affected all 80,000 staff, from chief executive Marc Bolland to workers manning the tills and changing rooms.
Following a recent improvement that saw the retailer post its first increase in profits for four years, Bolland has been awarded a bonus worth £596,000, taking his total pay package to £2.1m. M&S employees will also get a cash reward, although the retailer does not disclose details of the staff bonus pot.
Bolland earns a basic salary of £975,000 but at his own request has not received a pay rise since he joined the company in 2010. In his first year in the job, his total pay package was worth £4.4m.
The biggest bonus goes to Steve Rowe, the executive in charge of M&S’s highly-successful food division. He will get a £653,000 bonus, after a year when food revenues grew by 3.4% to £5.2bn.
In contrast, John Dixon, who leads M&S’s general merchandise division, which includes clothing and homeware, will get the smallest bonus, of £217,000. Although the retailer is winning plaudits for fashion again, annual sales of general merchandise were down 2.5% to £4.6bn.
Laura Wade-Gery, who leads M&S’s online operations, gets a reward of £219,000, after a botched relaunch of the M&S website hit sales. The retailer spent £150m revamping its website with more video and magazine-style content, but many customers struggled to register, leaving sales 2% down over the year.
Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne, who took charge of the retailer’s overseas business last July, has been awarded a £222,000 bonus. He is overseeing M&S’s rapid expansion into new countries, with 25 shops opened last year, including a flagship store in Kuwait, M&S’s largest shop outside the UK. But weak consumer spending in western Europe and adverse currency moves dragged down international sales by 5.5% to £1.1bn.
M&S execs can earn bonuses worth twice their annual salary, but nobody came close to hitting the top target. Rowe, the food director, did best with a bonus worth 127% of his annual salary, while Bolland got 61% of his basic pay. Bousquet-Chavanne (international) managed 42%, Wade-Gery (online) was on 40%, while Dixon (general merchandise) lagged at 36%.
