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Treasury CEO receives bumper pay packet
Michael Clarke, the chief executive of Australia’s Treasury Wine Estates, has been paid over £2 million for his first full year leading the Penfolds and Wolf Blass producer.
Clarke, who took the role of the then embattled company in March 2014, received the sum of AU$4.45m (£2.05m), in the 12 months to 30 June 2015, of which $3.23 million was cash and the rest made up of equity shares.
He received more than double the amount paid to the company’s next biggest earner, Robert Foye, a former Coca Cola executive who received $1.82 million (£840,000) for his 11 months at the head of Treasury’s Asian business.
In total, Treasury paid out just over $9m (£4.17m) to its ten current and former executives in the year to June 30, more than double what was paid in the same period last year.
The large increase in top-level pay comes as the company has begun to turn around its fortunes following years of financial trouble.
Treasury’s financial reports, which were officially submitted to Australian financial authorities on Tuesday (1 September) but were announced two weeks previous, show that it made $77.6m (£35.8m) after tax, a result up $178.5m (£82m) on last year. Its earnings before interest reached $225.1m, up 22% on last year.
Clarke praised the results as evidence of a “re-set” for the company, saying that substantial changes in strategy and “culture” were to thank.
“Fiscal 2015 represents the first successful year of TWE’s journey to transition from being an order- taking, agricultural company to a brand-led marketing organisation”, he said.
The strongest growth was reported in Australia-New Zealand and Asia with the company saying it had “successfully enhanced its routes-to-market” in Greater China, Korea and Singapore, as well as investing in Latin America, the Middle East and Global Travel Retail.
Asia reported a 54.5% growth in earnings before tax to $73.1m (£33.7m), this “outstanding” growth being driven by premiumisation, increased distribution breadth and “strong sales and marketing execution”, the company reported.