Frasers Group execs take big pay cut as crisis continues

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Apr 1, 2020

Frasers Group, the owner of Sports Direct, Flannels, Jack Wills and House of Fraser, has said that its executive team will take lower salaries during the coronavirus crisis. The company had also earlier said that it would continue to pay its staff for the next month. 

The news comes on the back of a PR problem for the company after its attempts to keep its Sports Direct stores open led to a backlash and an apology from chief executive Mike Ashley. 

The executive team will now have their annual salaries slashed to a maximum of £40,000 each. The company had said that warehouse staff, including those on zero hours contracts, would get their full salaries for this month but it couldn't commit to paying them beyond that date.

While the £40,000 figure for executives would look generous compared to many store staff salaries, it does represent a big cut. Finance chief Chris Wootton had been due to take a basic salary of £150,000 this year. The directors would also have been likely to pick up various other amounts linked to performance.