DIAGEO BOSS TOASTS PAY RISE AS HE POCKETS £8m

DIAGEO has paid its boss £7.9m as the cost of living soars.

The Guinness and Johnnie Walker maker gave Ivan Menezes a £6.3m bonus on top of his £1.6m salary, pensions and other benefits. It meant his pay jumped by just over £1.8m from a year earlier.

Menezes, who took over the drinks giant in 2013, has racked up a whopping £55.7m in his tenure.

He has consistently been one of the best paid bosses in the FTSE 100.

And for the 63-year-old, it will have been a year to enjoy. His £133,000 overall benefits package included a ‘product allowance’ – a tab for directors to drink the company’s products. The allowance was tallied alongside Menezes’s life and long -erm disability cover to come to £4,500.

Diageo last month toasted bumper sales as drinkers opted for more premium spirits. Drinkers celebrated the easing of lockdowns by splashing out on high-end spirits, the drinks maker said. It started the year well with sales in the first half climbing by a fifth. But as energy and shipping costs soar, it has put up prices by around 5pc.