// Greggs is facing a potential shareholder revolt
// Two investor advisory groups said shareholders should vote against Greggs’ remuneration report
Greggs is at risk of facing a shareholder revolt over high pay for its bosses after backlash from two investor advisory groups.
Bonus payouts for Greggs’ outgoing chief executive, Roger Whiteside, amounted to more than double his basic salary of £575,209, taking his total package to £1.9 million including benefits.
The investment adviser Pirc said shareholders should vote against Greggs’ remuneration report at its annual meeting on May 17.
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It said that Whiteside’s pay was excessive and amounted to 79 times that of a regular employee.
Glass Lewis pointed to a 11.4% rise in basic pay for Greggs’ finance chief, Richard Hutton, last year that was followed by a 3.5% increase this year to £393,300.
He is also lined up for an exceptional share bonus payout of 150% of salary despite Greggs not paying back £87 million in government furlough support received in 2020.
Greggs said it had approved the higher potential payout for Hutton this year because he was “critical in helping to support [the] transition” from Whiteside to new boss Roisin Currie.
However, Glass Lewis said Greggs’ board has “failed to provide a robust rationale” for the higher than usual bonus for Hutton – which would usually be limited to a maximum of 125% of salary.
Greggs’ remuneration committee said its annual bonus scheme had been “designed to ensure that bonus payments would only be made for appropriately stretching levels of performance”.
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