Morrisons boss given £1.09m in bonus after supermarket chain bounced back to profits

David Potts, chief executive at Morrisons, has been granted £1.09m (€1.38m, $1.57m) in annual bonus. This followed the UK supermarket chain posting improved sales and bouncing back to profits. It turned in a pre-tax profit of £217m for the year ending 31 January, a huge improvement when compared to the £792m loss it posted in the previous 12-month period.

While half of this bonus is to be paid in shares that he cannot sell for three years, the bonus has helped double his total earnings during this financial period to £2.25m. The other components in his pay package include £747,000 in salary, £200,000 towards relocation support, £26,000 in other benefits including car allowance and £187,000 in lieu of a pension.

Potts will be allowed to collect an additional £2.6m in long-term share awards, provided he achieves the cash flow, profit and sales targets. The total pay package of Potts is said to be more than that of Dalton Philips, the former CEO at Morrisons.

The package is set to invite opposition from shareholders at the company's June annual general meeting. More than a third of shareholders voted against the company's remuneration report last year.

The basic salary of Trevor Strain, Morrisons's finance director, has been increased. For the coming year, he will be paid a basic salary of £575,000, an increase of £50,000 from his previous basic pay. It comes at a time when the Bradford-based supermarket chain is battling other supermarkets in the country including Aldi, Lidl, Tesco and Asda.