Burberry pays CEO £2.6m amid turnaround and widespread job cuts

Burberry has revealed that it has paid new CEO Joshua Schulman almost £2.6m in his first nine months in charge despite widespread job cuts at the company.

In recent months Burberry announced plans to cut 1,700 jobs worldwide by 2027, including removing the entire night shift of 170 people at its Yorkshire raincoat factory.

Schulman, who joined Burberry in July last year, was paid a fixed salary of £1.36m and was handed a bonus of £1.2m alongside moving costs.

He is being paid a £25,000 a month “housing allowance” for just over a year, as well as £135,171 to help him find a new house, and £120,655 towards the costs associated with his move to the UK from New York.

He could also earn up to £5.6m this year if he meets bonus targets and another £3.6m if he is able to double the company’s share price in three years, according to the group’s annual report.

Alongside this, the luxury British brand paid its former CEO Jonathan Akeroyd about £1.5m, comprising a year’s notice, salary, pension and cash benefits after he left the brand in July.

The company’s cost-cutting strategy came after it posted an annual loss of £66m, down from a profit of £383m a year before, as a result of the slowdown in the luxury goods market.

Burberry’s directors claimed that they had consulted shareholders about Schulman’s remuneration stating: “The majority of shareholders appreciated the circumstances of Josh’s recruitment and were supportive of the design of Josh’s ongoing remuneration arrangements, the approach to his annual bonus for [the last year] and his recruitment award.”