Kerry Group’s outgoing chief executive, Stan McCarthy, saw his remuneration package fall by more than 13 per cent to $4 million (€3.75 million) last year as his stock awards under the company’s long-term incentive plan dropped.
Mr McCarthy, who turns 60 in September, when he is set to retire following four decades with the food group, saw his basic salary rise by 9 per cent last year to $1.45 million, while pension contributions increased by 22 per cent to $333,000 and other benefits remained unchanged at $109,000, according to the company’s latest annual report, published on Tuesday.
Performance
While the chief executive’s performance related pay jumped to $1.35 million from $768,000 on the previous year, share awards under the company’s long-term incentive plan (LTIP) fell to $768,00 from $2.14 million as the company’s 2006 LTIP was wound up and it reverted to one such plan.
Kerry Group announced last month that Mr McCarthy would be succeeded by fellow Kerry native, Edmond Scanlon (43), president and chief executive of the company's fast-growing Kerry Asia Pacific business.
The company reported a 7.1 per cent increase in trading profits last year to €750 million, driven by its taste, nutrition and functional ingredients business.
Gerry Behan, president and chief executive of the taste and nutrition business, was the second-top paid executive at the group last year, with total remuneration of $2.89 million.
Chief financial officer Brian Mehigan's compensation package, denominated in euro, came to €1.87 million while the head of the consumer food unit, Flor Healy, received almost €2 million.
Sales
Kerry's taste and nutrition business generated €4.9 billion of sales last year, selling ingredients to beverage, confectionery and culinary food companies as well as pharmaceutical firms. By contrast, its legacy consumer foods business, where brands include Dairygold, Denny and EasiSingles cheese slices, delivered a little over a fifth of group sales.
While stock analysts have long speculated that the company should sell off the consumer food business to fund acquisitions in the faster-growing and higher-margin taste and nutrition division, Kerry considers the former something of a “cash cow”.
"We will continue to pursue organic and acquisition growth opportunities and the group's balance sheet is well placed to support our objectives," chairman Michael Dowling said in the annual report.
