HEFTY PRICE FOR CHIEF GROCER
COLES chief Steven Cain received $5.39 million in pay and perks during his first year at the helm of the grocery group, the company has revealed.
According to Coles’ maiden annual report, released yesterday, Mr Cain’s pay packet for the year included a base salary of $1.82 million.
When he was named as Coles boss last year, Mr Cain was pledged payments and bonuses of $3.9 million by the retailer’s then owner, Wesfarmers, to lure him from his job running the supermarkets division at Metcash, the supplier of Independent Grocers of Australia.
Those payments and bonuses were also to compensate him for lost benefits that he had earned there but gave up to join Coles.
The $3.9 million payment was set down to be split into three cash payments, $900,000 in 2018, $1.5 million at the end of last December and $1.5 million at the end of this December.
The Coles annual report said that as well as his base salary, Mr Cain received $2.4 million in “other benefits” and cash-based short-term incentives to the value of $822,314.
Coles chief financial officer Leah Weckert was paid a total of $2.27 million, according to the report.
Former Coles chief John Durkan was paid a total of $1.51 million, of which $447,089 was his base salary and $687,123 in cash payments for short-term incentives.
In the annual report, Mr Cain said the grocer’s aim “to at least maintain our market share in the medium term is based on a practical and realistic assessment of the highly competitive and rapidly changing retail landscape”.
“Costs in our business have been growing faster than sales in recent times and this must be addressed as a matter of urgency,” he said.