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The CEO of Co-op took home a salary of £1.9m in 2025, despite the group falling to a loss of £35m amid a cyber attack, as well as the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
Shirine Khoury-Haq’s salary increased by 7.3% to £825,000 in the year, effective 1 January 2025, and as part of the company’s ‘Rewarding Growth’ plan she received a bonus of £165,000.
In the Co-op Group’s latest annual report, its remuneration committee said it had decided to pay out 10% of a three-year potential total as part of the new incentive plan.
It comes as Co-op recently reported an underlying operating loss of £35m for 2025, alongside Khoury-Haq announcing her intention to step down.
Khoury-Haq left her position on 29 March 2026, with Kate Allum appointed as interim group CEO from 30 March.
The leadership transition follows a period where the group navigated a significant criminal cyber-attack, which resulted in an estimated £107m impact on profitability.
The underlying operating loss of £35m included an estimated direct cyber impact of £86m, as well as an additional circa £150m in cost headwinds.
These headwinds include regulatory costs of £47m, made up of National Insurance increases and new Extended Producer Responsibility charges, as well as investments in pay.
The group’s un-audited results also saw a 2.3% decline in total revenue to £11.025bn, reflecting both the digital disruption and a contracting convenience market.
In its latest annual report, Co-op said: “The challenges of 2025 mean that on formulaic assessment, the targets to trigger payment under this scheme for the year were not met. However, the committee is keen to recognise the tremendous hard work and effort of all colleagues in an extremely challenging and difficult year.
“The way our colleagues responded with resilience and professionalism to an unprecedented malicious cyber attack was truly remarkable. As this is our Co-op’s first all-colleague incentive scheme, we are keen that colleagues are engaged by this scheme and continue to be motivated and focused on recovery and the growth of our Co-op over the next two years.”
It added: “The committee has therefore decided to exercise discretion, and all qualifying colleagues will receive 10% of their maximum opportunity under the Rewarding Growth incentive plan to recognise all their efforts during 2025. In addition to launching the Rewarding Growth incentive plan in 2025, our executive directors and senior leaders were eligible to join the 2025-27 long-term incentive plan. Any decision around the outturn of this plan will not be made until the end of 2027.”
A spokesperson for Co-op told Retail Sector: “The remuneration of our executive as set out in the annual report reflects our remuneration policy and the decisions of the remuneration committee.
“The Rewarding Growth Incentive Plan is a three year all-colleague scheme, with 53,000 eligible colleagues across Co-op receiving a payout this year. The board exercised discretion to recognise the extraordinary effort of colleagues during a very challenging year, including their response to the cyber incident. The 10% is the maximum outcome expected for this year and reflects both that contribution and our commitment to ensuring colleagues share in the recovery and future success of our Co-op.”
