Former Tesco boss receives over 8m pounds in payouts

8th Jul 2013 07:57

Former Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy has received almost 8.5m in performance-based payouts since he left the supermarket two years ago.Leahy, who was at the helm of the retailer for 14 years, was handed two tranches of three-year performance payouts, The Guardian revealed in an analysis of share awards.It comes despite writedowns, profit warnings and mounting criticism of Leahy's strategic legacy.Last year Tesco reported its first profit decline in two decades. Fresh & Easy, Leahy's foray into the US, is being scrapped at a cost of £1.0bn and £800m has been wiped off the value of the land bank built up by the former chief.Most of the £8.42m in performance bonuses received by Leahy since leaving were paid out between February and July 2012 during which time the group issued its shock profit warning. Shares worth £5.47m were also released to Leahy from Tesco's "executive incentive scheme" since his retirement. In addition, Leahy was given a £18.4m pension pot when he departed.A Tesco spokesman confirmed the accuracy of the analysis of post-retirement performance payouts."These awards were made during Terry Leahy's time as Tesco chief executive," he said. "They were awarded and vested in line with the performance criteria set for them. No new awards will be made to Terry Leahy."Leahy's predecessor Lord MacLaurin last week criticised the payments at the supermarket company's annual shareholder meeting."I think you would probably agree with me that when you judge the performance of a chief executive, you not only judge the performance of his day-to-day operation, but you also have to judge his legacy and I think we're all very sad to see the legacy Sir Terry Leahy has left," he said.MacLaurin later told the newspaper Leahy had "lost the plot", and that the US venture was a "disastrous" enterprise."It's also unforgivable that he [Leahy] took money out of the UK business and allowed it to flounder when our rivals were catching up and expanding."RD