Boots boss more than doubles pay to £3.8m as chain triples profits
The Boots boss, Seb James, more than doubled his pay to £3.8m last year after the chemist chain tripled profits as pandemic restrictions eased.
The beauty retail and pharmacy business made a pre-tax profit of £137m in the year to 31 August, across its three entities which file accounts at Companies House, up from £44.5m a year before, while sales rose just under 10% to nearly £7.8bn.
Profits were partly helped by the closure of 44 underperforming stores, according to accounts for the group’s Boots UK entity – part of a plan to close 200 outlets – taking the total to 2,232 by the end of the summer.
James, a friend of the former prime minister David Cameron, is understood to be the highest-paid director at Boots who took home £1.8m in long-term bonuses on top of £1.9m in annual pay and £100,000 in pension payments during the year. That compared with a total £1.5m payout the year before. James previously ran the Currys electrical goods business under its previous name Dixons Carphone before taking the reins at the high street chemist in 2018.
A spokesperson for Boots said: ““A significant proportion of the highest-paid director’s remuneration is made up of long-term incentive plan awards and this year’s increase in renumeration largely relates to such awards, which are made in [parent company] Walgreens Boots Alliance shares that vest over a number of years and are reliant on various performance factors being met.”
Boots had a difficult time during the pandemic when the number of visitors to its high street outlets dived amid government restrictions. While the group was able to keep its stores open, as its products and services were deemed essential, its customers chose to buy online or rein in spending on items such as
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