Sainsbury’s CEO takes home £5m in pay

Sainsbury’s chief executive Simon Roberts took home over £5m in pay last year as the supermarket chain’s underlying retail profits swelled to £1bn.

Roberts was paid £5.18m for the year to March 1, up from his £4.81m pay packet the year before, the retailer’s annual report shows.

The chief executive took home an annual salary of £1.06m and £4.12m in bonus payments, including an annual bonus of £1.94m. He received £2.17m from the grocer’s long term incentive plan.

Roberts has been awarded a 3% salary increase from this month, which takes his base pay of £971,000 up to just over £1m.

Sainsbury’s paid its chief financial officer Bláthnaid Bergin £2.26m last year – just less than the £2.35m she received the year before due to lower bonus payments.

Bergin has also been awarded a 3% increase, taking her base salary from £650,000 to £696,280.

The bumper pay packets come as Sainsbury’s saw a 7.2% increase in its retail underlying operating profit to £1.04bn last year as sales nudged up 3% to £31.5m.

The supermarket chain has forecast flat profits for the year ahead as it looks to maintain momentum in a highly competitive grocery market.

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