Ocado Group - AGM 13 May 2021
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, shareholders are not permitted to attend the AGM in person but may participate online via
Items 2 and 8: Remuneration report and re-election of Mr. Andrew Harrison
We have serious concerns about the extremely excessive incentives, both the STI and one-off Value Creation Plan (VCP). Last year, the remuneration report was contested by 29.8% (25% in 2019) of shareholders. The Remuneration committee made some changes in response. However, the controversial Value Creation Plan is still in place, and Tim Steiner’s remunerations continue to cause the furore each year, harming the business's reputation. The Remuneration Committee "believes that the current policy continues to be aligned with Ocado's strategy and business needs and hence remains the right vehicle to remunerate and retain our Executives". We hold the Chair of the Remuneration committee responsible for serious remuneration shortfalls.
Furthermore, the VCP is over-complex and leads to misunderstanding. For instance, The Guardian published an article, “Ocado bosses pocket shares worth £116m amid pandemic home deliveries boom”, assuming that CEO Tim Steiner will get 2.45m shares worth £66.2m. However, an annual cap should apply (£20m for the CEO and £5m for any other executive directors).
The level of remuneration is a matter of concern to all stakeholders, including the workforce and shareholders in particular. Excessive remunerations send a negative message and cause long-term damage to the Company. Accordingly, we recommend to OPPOSE these two resolutions.
Ocado lacks gender diversity in leadership: only 16.7% of the Board are women and there is no woman among five executive directors.
Ocado Group is an online grocery retailer. Co.'s principal activities are grocery retailing and the development and monetisation of Intellectual Property and technology used for the online retailing, logistics and distribution of grocery and consumer goods. Co. has two reportable segments: Retail, which provides online grocery and general merchandise offerings to customers within the U.K.; and Solutions, which provides end-to-end online retail solutions to corporate customers within and outside of the U.K. OCADO retails brand include ocado, fetch, Sizzle, and FABLED marie Claire. OCADO solutions brand include Groupe Casino, Sobeys, and Morrisons.
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