Tesco boss Ken Murphy handed £4.74m pay packet

The boss of Tesco received a £4.74 million pay packet for the past year, the supermarket group has revealed in its annual report.

It comes as food prices for customers continue to rise amid a host of intensifying pressures on household budgets.

The report, which was filed on Friday morning, said Ken Murphy’s bumper total pay deal was 224 times the overall pay of the median member of staff at Tesco.

Mr Murphy, who started as the firm’s chief executive in October 2020, was handed a £1.54 million basic salary for the year to February.

This was boosted by around £3.2 million of performance-related bonuses after supporting the company’s recovery during the pandemic.

The supermarket giant’s group pre-tax profits jumped to £2.03 billion in the year to February 26, up from £636 million the previous year.

Tesco’s leadership team have also helped the company tackle major supply chain challenges, including lorry driver shortages.

It comes after Mr Murphy received £992,000 for his first five months at the helm in the previous financial year.

Meanwhile, his predecessor, Dave Lewis, received £6.3 million in total pay in the 2020 financial year.

For the latest year, recently appointed chief financial officer Imran Nawaz received £5.4 million in total remuneration, driven by a £3.5 million compensation payment after leaving his previous post at Tate & Lyle.

The report said that Mr Nawaz received a 4.29% increase in his basic salary, while Mr Murphy saw a 2.25% increase.

However, the company also highlighted that staff at stores and warehouses received a 5.8% increase in basic pay.

Chairman John Allan saw his pay deal stay roughly flat for the year at £695,000.

Earlier this week, Mr Allan said there is an “overwhelming need” for a windfall tax on energy companies after seeing the supermarket’s customers “extremely stretched”.