£28m for M&S chiefs in a decade of decline

EXPERTS have blasted Marks & spencer for ‘rewarding failure’ as successive bosses pocketed nearly £28m in pay amid a long- term profits slump and a £7bn drop in the retailer’s value.

M&s’s profits have slumped by 93pc to just £66.8m during a decade of decline as it struggles to stay competitive.

Its shares price nose dived by more than two-thirds in the ten years to 2018. But despite this huge slump in value, M&s shelled out £27.5m on chief executives’ pay packages during the period.

Chief executive steve Rowe has been paid almost £2.8m since taking the reins at M&s in april 2016, while his predecessor Marc Bolland pocketed just under £14m for his six years at the helm. Former chief executive and executive chairman lord Rose was paid £10.8m from 2007 until he left in 2011.

The High street business is worth just £4.7bn today compared with a record high valuation of more than £12bn in 2007.

Richard Hyman, a leading retail analyst, said: ‘It is impossible to look at these numbers without reaching the conclusion that shareholders have been paying a rising price for a deteriorating performance. Marks & spencer isn’t alone in this. In the corporate world the disconnection between the remuneration packages of the top people and their performance is truly alarming.

‘Over this period M&s has weakened, there’s no question about that. It particularly weakened under Marc Bolland and the numbers reflect that. It is a reward for failure,’ Hyman added.

M&s has embarked on a massive transformation plan to cut costs and win back customers. It has shut swathes of stores, slashed prices and overhauled its top management team. Just this week the retailer revealed it will close even more shops than the 100 already planned.

The 135-year- old firm – which has more than 1,000 stores and employs 81,000 staff – has suffered an onslaught from online shopping, and has been hit by crippling business rates.

It forked out £184m on the tax last year. Rowe has blamed the rates bill for forcing M&s to shut stores, and urged ministers to create a level playing field so bricks and mortar retailers do not unfairly pay more tax than online rivals such as amazon.

The Mail has been campaigning for a root and branch review of business rates and a level playing field between traditional retailers and internetonly firms.

luke Hildyard, director of the High pay Centre, said: ‘M&s’s travails are well-documented and go beyond individual chief executives, but people will find it hard to understand how a company that hasn’t been doing brilliantly can pay them so much.

‘Typically executive pay levels at M&s have been lower than for other FTSE 100 firms but this demonstrates part of a broader problem with pay culture in the UK.

‘ lavish pay packages are meant to incentivise great performance, but top managers still rake in millions, even when the company doesn’t do well, so what’s the incentive to do better?’ he added.

M&s’s shares closed up 1.3pc, or 3.8p, to 289.5p last night.