M&S revival nets £1.3m for boss

Marks & Spencer chief Luc Vandevelde today reaped the reward for reviving the high street giant's fortunes by pocketing a bonus of more than £1.35 million.

The bonus is made up of £654,000 for this year and £704,000 of the £816,000 bonus he waived last year after intense pressure from employees, shareholders and customers following a nosedive in M&S profits.

In accordance with the terms of his contract, Mr Vandevelde has invested half of the bonus in M&S shares, yesterday purchasing more than 175,000 at 3861/2p each.

The Belgian is also understood to have been awarded a pay rise in March, although an M&S spokeswoman refused to reveal how much. His basic salary was £650,000 last year. The pay award will be revealed when the M&S annual report is published next month. All 60,000 employees benefited from the turnaround in the store's fortunes, sharing a total bonus pool of more than £60 million.

Mr Vandevelde's bonus comes three days after M&S unveiled its highest profits in four years and said it intends to regain its position as Britain's number one retailer.

In the year to the end of March, M&S made £629million, a 31 per cent increase on the previous year and the equivalent of £1.7million every day. In the past 18 months, its shares have gone from a low of 171p to 387p. Dame Stella Rimington, chairman of the remuneration committee and former head of MI5, said: "We are pleased to be able to make these awards. Credit for Marks& Spencer's turnaround goes to everyone in the business.

"We are now much more of a performance-focused business and the bonus scheme reinforces the relationship between an employee's reward and the performance of the company."

Since its low point last year, shoppers have flocked back to M&S as the group has revamped its fashion lines and won back disaffected customers. Earlier this week, it emerged that Bhs boss Philip Green is awarding himself a payout of up to £180 million, equivalent to almost £500,000 a day.