Kerry Group CEO’s pay rises by 12%

Kerry Group chief Stan McCarthy received a 12.3% pay increase last year, the food giant’s latest annual report shows.

Mr McCarthy’s total remuneration last year came to just under €2.03m, up from more than €1.8m for 2011.

His basic salary also rose by 11%, from €882,000 to €979,000. Mr McCarthy’s benefit-in-kind and pension allowances both increased on the previous year, as did his performance-related bonus, which jumped by almost 5%, from €689,000 to €722,000.

Details of Kerry’s management pay levels come just over a month after the Tralee-based international food group published a strong set of annual results, which largely beat market forecasts and included an 11.3% rise in earnings per share, an 11% increase in underlying pre-tax profits — to €482.1m — and a 10.3% jump in group sales revenue to €5.8bn.

On the back of those figures, management recommended a final dividend of 25c, which — if approved by shareholders at next month’s annual general meeting — will see the total 2012 dividend rise by 11.2% to 35.8c.

Management also recently said it is anticipating earnings per share growth of between 7% and 11% for this year.

Total executive pay at Kerry Group increased by over 13% last year, from under €4.6m to just over €5.2m.

Chief financial officer Brian Mehigan saw his basic salary marginally increase from €485,000 to €492,000, although his performance-related bonus decreased by €14,000 to €327,000.

However, Mr Mehigan’s overall remuneration package increased by 2.3% to €980,000.

Meanwhile, Flor Healy — head of Kerry Foods — saw his total package increase from €750,000 in 2011 to €858,000 last year.

Gerry Behan — who is group president but also heads up Kerry’s ingredients and flavours division, which drove last year’s financial results with a 14% revenue rise and a 15% jump in trading profit — saw his package jump from €1.08m to over €1.3m.