Royal Mail Chief pockets GBP 1.1m as profits dive
Royal Mail’s chief executive, Adam Crozier, has been awarded GBP 1.12 million in pay and bonuses as the strike-ridden UK postal service reported a 34.3 per cent fall in profits as a result of increasing pension costs.
The group also revealed today it only expects to break even in the current financial year because of funding its company pension plan, increased investment and falling postal volumes.
Mr Crozier, who was criticised during the recent postal crisis for allegedly failing to attend talks with unions, was paid a basic GBP 633,000 as well as a GBP 469,000 performance-related bonus, some of which has been deferred into a long-term incentive scheme. With GBP 18,000 in benefits, Mr Crozier was rewarded a total £1.12 million.
Allan Leighton, non-executive chairman at Royal Mail, who recruited Mr Crozier in 2003, was paid a performance-related bonus of GBP 200,000 on top of GBP 20,000 in basic pay.
The group admitted that the same competition and volume factors had impacted current trading, with profits down by GBP 78 million in the first five months of the financial year.
Royal Mail said today: “Key issues for the company as we move forward are the continuing high cost of funding the pension scheme, the continuing decline in volumes as customers move to other forms of communication and the beginning of the huge investment we will now make in the modernisation of the company.