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Birmingham Post
Birmingham Post
Business
Jon Robinson

New B&M boss to be handed £300,000 pay rise when he succeeds Simon Arora

The incoming chief executive of B&M is to be handed a £300,000 pay rise when he takes over the top job.

Chief financial officer Alex Russo is to succeed Simon Arora who announced in April that he is to step down next year.

Mr Russo will earn a base salary of £800,000 when he becomes chief executive, a new document published by B&M has confirmed.

READ MORE: B&M Bargains names new chief executive as discount retail giant posts fall in sales

The CFO had been on a salary of £475,000 which rose to £500,000 on April 1 to "recognise his strong performance since he was appointed and the increased responsibility of his role as a result of taking on leadership of Heron Foods and the French operations of the business".

Mr Arora's base salary has also increased from £810,000 to £834,300.

Mr Russo will also be eligible to participate in the annual incentive plan (AIP) up to the policy maximum of 150% of his salary for 2022/23, increased from 125% of his salary for 2021/22 "to reflect his enlarged role".

A total of 75% of his AIP payment will be based on B&M's adjusted EBITDA while 25% will be linked to a range of personal objectives.

B&M also confirmed that half of any bonus earned will be deferred in shares for three years.

Mr Russo could also be in line to be awarded 200% of his salary when he is appointed as chief executive, under the company's long term incentive plan (LTIP).

In its annual report to shareholders, B&M said: "With a focus on simplicity, cost discipline and speed of decision making, Simon Arora and his management team navigated the challenges of the pandemic and supply chain issues very effectively, continuing to provide B&M customers with great products and prices.

"Excellent progress was also made in France last year both financially and operationally."

It added: "During the year, our colleagues across the business responded extremely well to the continuing challenges of Covid-19.

"Our policy is to give our workforce the opportunity to share in the company’s success with cash bonuses being paid where internal targets for the business are met or exceeded.

"As a result of the strong performance of the business during the year, we paid eligible colleagues an additional week’s pay in January 2022.

"We will continue to enable our workforce to share in the success of the business in this way in future years to the extent that performance warrants it.

"It should be noted that setting the AIP and LTIP targets this year was particularly challenging given the exceptional growth in 2020/21 and the difficulty in predicting the impact of the easing of lockdown restrictions on trading patterns.

"The AIP and LTIP targets were set taking into account the management plan and analysts’ consensus forecasts at the time of setting the targets at the start of the year.

"The LTIP range was stretched given the high degree of uncertainty faced by the business with a performance significantly above plan required to achieve maximum pay-out."

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