Tesco boss trousers £4.6m as thousands sweat on jobs

The 9,000 Tesco staff facing the axe might want to look away now after it has been revealed that their boss – “Drastic Dave” Lewis – trousered £4.6m last year for his efforts in turning round the business.
Lewis received a base salary of £1.25m, a £1.6m bonus and £1.3m through share plans in a year which saw the retailer secure the £3.7bn acquisition of wholesaler Booker and the launch of new discount chain Jack’s.
However, the figure actually represents a 13% pay cut from 2017’s £5.3m, which some analysts have said reflects the growing investor disquiet around executive pay – even though he is still pocketing 23,000% more than the average Tesco staffer.
The remuneration figures come just months after Tesco kicked off a major cost-cutting exercise that puts up to 9,000 head office and store roles at risk. The business expects to find new roles for around half of the staff impacted.
Since Lewis took the helm in 2014, he has been widely credited with steering Tesco back to health. He is confident that the mammoth turnaround will be complete by the end of the current year.
The annual report revealed that Lewis’s number two – chief financial officer Alan Stewart – received a pay packet of £2.6m for the year, including a £834,000 bonus.