Tesco chief pockets bumper £4.7m in pay and bonuses

Tesco’s chief executive received a £4.74 million pay package for the past year, the supermarket giant has revealed in its latest annual report.

The disclosure comes as the price of many food products continues to rise amid a host of intensifying pressures on household budgets.

The annual report noted that Ken Murphy’s bumper total pay deal was 224 times the overall pay of the median member of staff at the company.

Murphy, who started as the firm’s chief executive in October 2020, was handed a £1.54m basic salary for the year to February. This was boosted by around £3.2m of performance-related bonuses after supporting the company’s recovery during the pandemic.

Murphy received £992,000 for his first five months at the helm in the previous financial year.

Meanwhile, his predecessor, Dave Lewis, received £6.3m in total pay in the 2020 financial year.

For the latest year, recently appointed chief financial officer Imran Nawaz received £5.4m in total remuneration, driven by a £3.5m compensation payment after leaving his previous post at Tate & Lyle.

The report said that Nawaz received a 4.29 per cent increase in his basic salary, while Murphy saw a 2.25 per cent increase.

Tesco, Britain’s biggest retailer, saw group pre-tax profits jump to £2.03 billion in the year to February 26, up from £636 million the previous year. Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

However, the company also highlighted that staff at stores and warehouses received a 5.8 per cent increase in basic pay.

Chairman John Allan saw his remuneration stay roughly flat for the year at £695,000.

Last month, Tesco revealed that annual profits had more than tripled, but warned retail earnings will come under pressure this year from soaring inflation and as shoppers return to pre-pandemic shopping habits.

Britain’s biggest retailer saw group pre-tax profits jump to £2.03 billion in the year to February 26, up from £636m the previous year, thanks to rising sales and lower costs related to the pandemic.

The group said sales excluding fuel lifted 2.5 per cent to £54.8bn, with UK like-for-like growth of 0.4 per cent - up 8.2 per cent on a pre-pandemic two-year comparison.

Profits were helped as it saw Covid costs fall to £220m from £892m the previous year. Tesco is also extending its Aldi Price Match promotion to more product lines as it tackles the march of the discounters.