Total Produce sweetens executive pay

A 20 per cent boost in pay for Total Produce chief executive, Rory Byrne, accounted for most of the increase in what the company's executives took home last year, according to its annual report.

The fruit and vegetable distributor and Fyffes’s offshoot increased Byrne’s pay to €1.255 million last year from €1.038 million in 2016. His 2017 package comprised €500,000 in basic salary and director’s fees, a €550,000 bonus and a €175,000 pension contribution.

Total Produce paid its four executives €2.799 million overall, almost 9.5 per cent more than the €2.534 million it paid them the previous year. Much of this increase, €217,000, went to Byrne.

Chairman Carl McCann received a basic salary and fees of €520,000, a bonus of €208,000 and €19,000 towards “motor expenses”, bringing his total package to €747,000, just €11,000 more than he received in 2016.

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McCann did well out of his stock. He held 4.4 million Total Produce shares on December 31st, worth more than €11.2 million at that point, compared with €7 million a year earlier.

Share price

A 30 per cent jump in the company’s share price was mostly responsible for this increase, but McCann’s acquisition of an extra 445,000 shares also helped.

Byrne’s 2.54 million shares were valued at €6.5 million on December 31st. This was around 50 per cent ahead of the €4.32 million that his 2.215 million shares were worth at the end of 2016.

McCann chairs another Fyffes spin-off, Balmoral International Land, which leases properties to Fyffes and Total Produce, among others. Total Produce charges Balmoral for the use of McCann's time.

Total Produce paid finance director Frank Davis €340,000 in basic salary, a €205,000 bonus, €19,000 in motor expenses, while the company contributed €107,000 to his pension. This was €671,000 in all, compared with €606,000 the previous year. Executive director Frank Gernon received a salary of €130,000 and a €26,000 bonus, just slightly more than the €154,000 he earned in 2016.