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Despite the retail giant’s first year of sales growth in seven years, Tesco’s (LON:TSCO) chief executive saw a ten percent pay cut last year.
Dave Lewis earned £4.15 million last year, compared to his £4.63 million salary a year earlier. Lewis’s base salary remained unchanged at £1.25 million while his bonus fell to £2.4 million for 2016-17, compared with the £3 million bonus payout he received in 2015-16.
The Tesco bonus is linked to targets such as profits, sales and individual objectives.
While bonuses fell, Tesco had still performed well in a tough year for retailers.
“Tesco has had a year of strong progress, delivering against the three turnaround priorities of improving competitiveness in the UK, a more secure balance sheet and rebuilding trust, which were set in 2014.” said Deanna Oppenheimer, chair of the remuneration committee.
“A stable platform has been established and a strong performance delivered in spite of significant external challenges, which made 2016-17 another challenging year for retailers.”
The retail giant has seen a decline in sales growth in previous years due to tough competition from discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl. In the year ending in February, Tesco managed its first full year of sales growth since 2009-10.
The supermarket giant is still feeling the effects of the 2014 accounting scandal, where it took a £235 million hit and must pay compensation to its investors.
Tesco also said in March that it still has to reimburse 140,000 former and current employees almost £10 million following payroll errors.
To help boost margins, Tesco has said it hopes to cut costs by £1.5 billion over the next three years. Thousands of jobs will be at risk.
Tesco’s share price has increased by 13 percent over the past 12 months. They are also facing opposition of its £3.7 billion takeover of the wholesaler, Booker.