C&C’s new chief Forde receives €1.42m sign-on bonus

Irish beer and cider maker C&C Group awarded its new chief executive David Forde €1.42 million of shares on joining the company last November to compensate him for pay he forfeited by quitting Heineken to take up the job.

Combined with a salary of €230,000 and other benefits for his first four months with C&C, to the end of the company’s financial year on February 28th, Mr Forde’s total remuneration for the period came to €1.73 million.

When announcing Mr Forde’s appointment last July, C&C disclosed that he would be compensated for remuneration that he was losing out on for quitting Heineken, where the Irishman had worked for more than three decades, most recently as head of its UK operations.

C&C’s annual report, published this week as it unveiled an annual loss and plans to raise £151 million (€175.6 million) through a rights issue, revealed that Mr Forde was forfeiting a €1.37 million retention payment due in July 2021 as well as €103,250 of fixed pay as he was obliged to take an eight-week break before taking up his new job.

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The compensation was settled by way of shares, half of which will vest next November and the other half 12 months later. “After sales of shares to cover tax, David Forde will be required to retain 50 per cent of the shares acquired in satisfaction of our executive director shareholding requirement,” the report said.

C&C, owner of the Bulmers brand in the Republic and Tennant's lager in Scotland, reported on Wednesday that its full-year net revenue plunged 56.1 per cent to €736.9 million as pubs, restaurants and hotels were hit by lockdowns during the Covid-19 crisis.

Debt burden

The group also revealed plans for the rights issue, the proceeds of which would be used to reduce the group's debt burden, give it additional headroom amid an uncertain outlook even as restrictions ease in the UK and Ireland, and allow it to take advantage of growth opportunities in the future.

C&C did not pay normal executive bonuses in its past financial year. However, its former chief executive Stephen Glancey received a pay packet worth nearly €3 million for his final year in the job through February 2020, including bonuses and a termination payment of €696,000.