Ocado more than quadrupled its losses last year as it counted the cost of a warehouse fire and stepped up investment, but its stunning share price performance triggered an £87m payday for senior directors (The Financial Times £). Ocado has reported bigger annual losses of £214m after a fire burned down one of its hi-tech warehouses in Andover a year ago (The Daily Mail)
Ocado founder Tim Steiner received a bumper pay packet of £58.7m last year, one of the highest ever handouts for a FTSE 100 boss, despite the company revealing a £214m loss on Tuesday (The Telegraph, Sky News, The BBC). Four Ocado bosses are sharing an £88m windfall after a bonus scheme pegged to the online grocer’s share price paid out (The Guardian). The top five executives at Ocado are to share an £88m payday, despite the online retailer suffering a £215 million loss in its last financial year (The Times £).
Ocado will double the amount it is spending on robotic warehouses to £600million this year as it prepares to launch partnerships overseas. It plans to open its first delivery facilities for Sobeys in Toronto and Casino in Paris. (The Daily Mail)
Jean-François van Boxmeer is to step down after almost 15 years at the helm of Heineken, the Dutch group that he built into the world’s second-largest brewer (The Financial Times £). Jean-François van Boxmeer, who joined Heineken as a management trainee in 1984 and rose to become its chief executive in 2001, is to retire from the Dutch brewer in June (The Times £).
Marks & Spencer has turned to a company that makes its sandwiches to find a finance director. The high street retailer yesterday named Eoin Tonge as its chief financial officer, hiring him from Greencore, the convenience food supplier, where he held the same role (The Times £). Former Goldman Sachs banker Eoin Tonge has joined Marks & Spencer as its new finance chief (The Daily Mail). Marks & Spencer has poached a new finance chief from sandwich maker Greencore with a golden hello worth up to £2.5m (The Telegraph).
The retail sector has warned about disruption to the supply of fruit and vegetables after Britain confirmed it will introduce import controls on EU goods from January. Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, said ministers needed to set out detailed plans on how the controls would be implemented. (Sky News)
Sainsbury’s is using machine learning to crunch customer sales data, demographic statistics, catchment areas and its own Nectar loyalty card to refine what its convenience store customers want from their stores. (The Times £)
Intu Properties was dealt another blow on Tuesday after a Hong Kong-based investor pulled out of plans to take part in the shopping centre group’s emergency cash call – a day after it had confirmed talks. (The Guardian)
In China, it has been a tale of two meats: the impact of the coronavirus outbreak has sent China’s chicken prices lower, while pork prices continue to rise. Both meats became more expensive in 2019 after African swine fever — a deadly disease affecting pigs — dramatically reduced the country’s herd and pork production. But this year, chicken prices have fallen sharply owing to weakened restaurant demand during the health crisis. (The Financial Times £)
Amazon boss Jeff Bezos raked in £3.1billion from selling shares in just eight days, regulatory filings show. (The Daily Mail)
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