M&S Chief Misses Maximum Bonus as Retailer’s Earnings Shrink

Marks & Spencer Group Plc Chief Executive Officer Marc Bolland missed out on his maximum bonus for a second year and didn’t receive a performance share award amid shrinking earnings at the U.K.’s largest clothing retailer.

Bolland’s bonus of 829,000 pounds ($1.28 million) represented only 42.5 percent of the potential maximum, the London-based company said today in its annual report. Potential share awards made in 2010 will lapse after M&S failed to meet goals for earnings per share to rise by at least 3 percent more than the Retail Prices Index.

The CEO remained the company’s highest earning director last year, earning 2.1 million pounds, the report shows. That included an unchanged annual salary of 975,000 pounds. Bolland’s salary will be frozen for a third consecutive year since he joined in May 2010 at his own request, M&S said.

The CEO has overseen two years of falling earnings as he ramps up investment in store formats, clothing quality and information systems in an effort to boost sales. Underlying pretax profit fell 5.8 percent to 665.2 million pounds in the year ended March 30 as consumers spent less on fashion goods, even as food sales increased, the retailer reported last month.

Bolland’s bonus was linked to a target for pretax profit as well as objectives for costs and sustainability.

Marketing Director Steve Sharp, who said last month that he plans to leave the retailer, received the second-highest compensation of 1.4 million pounds, followed by John Dixon, the head of the general-merchandise unit, at 1.3 million pounds.