Total Produce directors share €1.35m bonus relating to acquisition

Three executives in fruit and vegetable provider Total Produce shared bonus awards of €1.35 million connected with the company's acquisition of a 45 per cent stake in Dole Foods in the United States, one of the world's largest producers of fruit and veg.

Executive chairman Carl McCann was awarded €500,000 worth of shares, while chief executive Rory Byrne received €250,000 in cash and the same amount in shares. The company paid finance director Frank Davis €175,000 in cash and shares valued to the same amount.

The €925,000 worth of share awards have to be held by the directors for at least five years, according to its annual report, and were paid in “recognition of their commitment and effort” in relation to the Dole transaction.

A separate €282,000 award of shares was made to the executives under a short-term incentive plan. This included €69,000 in cash to settle “relevant taxes”.

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Mr McCann’s total remuneration last year rose by 11.5 per cent to €833,000, including a basic salary of €580,000 and a bonus of €232,000.

Mr Byrne’s remuneration fell to €1.19 million from €1.23 million a year earlier. His basic salary increased by €10,000 to €510,000 but his bonus payment was reduced by 8 per cent to €505,000. Mr Davis’s remuneration increased by 26.5 per cent to €849,000 during the year, including a bonus of €374,000

In addition to the $300 million (€267 million) Dole deal, Total Produce completed a number of transactions in Europe in 2018 including the sale of its Nordic salad business.

Revenue during the year rose 17.7 per cent to €5.04 billion with adjusted earnings up 27.6 per cent to €133 million.

In his chairman’s statement, Mr McCann said that trading in early 2019 has been “satisfactory” and that the company was targeting an increase in earnings per share in the “mid-to-upper single digit range”.