The chief executive of Britain's Co-Operative Group will take a 60% pay cut as his workload has eased since the supermarkets-to-funerals group overcame a financial crisis two years ago, the mutual said today.
In a statement, the company said CEO Richard Pennycook had requested the pay cut.
This will see his basic pay drop to £750,000 for the year starting on July 1, from £1.25m for the previous 12 months.
Additional reductions to his pension and bonus will cut his total package by nearly 60%, it said. Chairman
Allan Leighton said Pennycook believed his job had changed from a rescue operation to rebuilding, and his pay should reflect the values of the mutually owned group. He added that Pennycook had earned every penny of his former salary.
"The Co-Op was long gone and dead not such a long time ago, and the fact we can sit here today saying all facets of our organisation are growing and we feel very confident about the future is a reflection on the work that has taken place," Leighton stated.
Pennycook joined Britain's biggest mutual in 2014 when its future was in doubt after a £1.5 billion funding "hole" was found at its banking operation a year earlier. It returned to the black last year.
The group's recovery has been aided by a shift in Britons' habits towards smaller, more frequent shopping in convenience stores rather than weekly visits to superstores owned by Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons.
Like-for-like sales in the Co-Op's food business grew by 1.6% in the year to January 2, the company said, helped by lower prices for fruit and vegetables and an improvement in own-brand products.
Data published by Kantar Worldpanel earlier this week showed Co-op increased food sales in its more than 2,800 stores by 3.9% in the 12 weeks to March 27, far outstripping its bigger rivals.
The group, which also has insurance and funeral operations, reported broadly stable group revenue of £9.3 billion for 2015, while pretax profit fell to £23m from £124m, reflecting major investment and a £121m boost in 2014 from disposals.
It said investment in the business would continue in 2016, but it did not expect to pay a dividend to its 8 million members until its turnaround programme finishes at the end of 2017.
