Ocado on list of shame over fat cat pay

OCADO has been added to a public register of shame after a shareholder revolt over fat cat pay.

Around a quarter of investors voted against pay at the firm, in a bruising setback for founder and chief executive Tim Steiner ( pictured). The 49-year- old was paid £3.1m last year but could be handed £100m if he triples the Ocado share price over the next five years.

The stock has risen almost sixfold in the last 18 months. Steiner has already pocketed millions of pounds, selling shares as its market value soared.

But following yesterday’s annual meeting in London, Ocado has been automatically placed on the Government’s named and shamed list of firms that have attracted an investor revolt. Companies are added to the public register when more than 20pc of shareholders vote against a resolution at an annual meeting.

Andrew Harrison, chairman of Ocado’s remuneration committee, said: ‘The board recognises that some shareholders voted against our remuneration proposals.

‘We will continue to engage with shareholders on remuneration and governance matters and are committed to consulting on the formation of the future remuneration policies.’

It is a blow to Steiner after he defied critics and turned Ocado into a stock market darling. He has been credited with transforming it from an online supermarket to the ‘Microsoft of retail’ after it did deals with supermarkets in the US, Canada, France, Australia and Sweden.

Ocado will provide the overseas firms with its technology and robotoperated warehouses to power their online deliveries.

It has also secured a joint venture agreement with Marks & Spencer to provide an online food delivery service for the first time. M&S will pay Ocado £750m for a 50pc stake in its retail business as part of the deal.

The tie- up was announced shortly after Ocado suffered a major setback in February when fire destroyed its warehouse in Andover, Hampshire, which meant it took a £4.8m hit on sales at the start of the year. Steiner took a gamble with Ocado in 2000 when he quit his job as a Goldman Sachs bond trader and decided to cash in on the dotcom bubble. He set up the firm with an old colleague and a school friend and the company went public in 2010. He used £68m worth of shares to cover the cost of his divorce from wife Belinda Steiner, with whom he has four children, in November 2016. He now lives with his girlfriend, Polish lingerie model Patrycja Pyka, who is almost 20 years his junior. Ocado’s shares rose 1.1pc, or 15.5p, to 1378p.