Shareholders slam Sainsburys on ex-boss's award

British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s today faced a storm of protest from shareholders over its decision to hand ousted chairman Peter Davis a £2.3m (€3.5m) share award.

Investors at the company’s annual meeting in London called on the board to apologise over the award, which the supermarket group has since withdrawn.

Amid shouts of “resign” and “shame”, one shareholder branded the affair an “appalling fiasco” that had “damaged the company deeply”.

Another shareholder demanded to know what action Sainsbury’s was going to take to stop a repeat of the situation, which has led to the start of a legal battle between the company and Davis.

The company has since reversed its decision to make the award to Davis, saying new information has come to light since it made the award.

However, it is still putting the original remuneration report, which includes the proposed award for Davis, for approval to the meeting.

But it said it would not be implementing the recommendations as far as Davis was concerned.

The chairman of the meeting, Lord Levene, said he was not in the least bit surprised that shareholders had been confused by what had happened but he said the Sainsbury family believed it was in the interests of the company and its shareholders to approve the remuneration report “given that it has no implications for Sir Peter Davis”.

Earlier in the meeting, new chief executive Justin King said the company believed it had let down its customers with its disappointing recent performance.

He said it had become “inward looking” and had lost focus on its customers.

He said: “Our customers say that we have not been looking after them as well as we should have done.”