Tomkins CEO gets 59% pay rise after 4,300 job cuts
Jim Nicol, the CEO of engineering firm Tomkins, has received a 59% pay rise despite thousands of job losses last year.
British engineering group Tomkins has awarded its CEO a salary rise of 59%, despite it shedding 4,300 jobs in 2009.
According to the Group’s annual report, the FTSE 250 company has awarded James (Jim) Nicol a £2.7 million pay package – a £955,000 salary and bonuses and other benefits worth a further £1.73m.
The one-time conglomerate, famous for its “buns to guns” range of products, now sells parts and systems for the industrial and automotive industries and building products, including ventilation systems and whirlpool baths.
The Group only climbed back into the black in 2009 – in the Preliminary Results Announcement released on 1 March 2010, Mr Nicol stated: “Sales from ongoing segments were down 21.8% year-on-year due to the global recession, however stabilisation in some of our end markets enabled the Group to achieve higher sales, adjusted operating profit and cash flow in the second half compared with the first half.”
He continued: “Although a number of our end markets appear to have stabilised, the strength and timing of any recovery remains uncertain. We expect any recovery to be towards the latter part of the year. ”
The payout also comes a year after Tomkins risked a pay-for-failure row after awarding Mr Nicol a £500,000 bonus despite falling to a $7.6m (£4.96m) loss in 2008. In 2009 the company improved its financial position but made a pre-tax profit of just $38.4m against a profit of $525.1m in 2007.
The company laid off 4,300 employees in 2009 as it shut 25 facilities worldwide as part of a wholesale restructuring programme that led to the group incurring costs of $144.1m last year. It moved many of its plants to lower-cost countries, including Mexico, Turkey and China, where demand for power transmission belts is picking up.
The Group said it expected to recognise a further $12m of costs and see net cash outflows of $65m in 2010 as it completes the restructuring – labelled as Project Eagle and Project Cheetah.
On the subject of restructuring, the 1 March document read: “Rigorous expense management throughout the Group remains a high priority.”
Just not, it would seem, for the CEO himself.
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Jim Nicol,you are a rich sucmbag, to layoff 4,300 employes and move plants to lower developed countries has made you a rich man. So keep stepping on the workers that make your product worth buying. Go on and get in bed with those communist countries.
June 5th, 2010 at 12:06 amDon’t think I could accept an increase under the circumstances if I were Mr. Nicol. The article didn’t mention the remaining workforce was denied pay increases for the year 2010. It seems the masses did without so Mr. Nicol could have more. Is the Board of Directors comfortable with this? Guess my little brain isn’t capable of understanding “how business works”.
June 9th, 2010 at 1:41 amI can second the comment about being denied pay increases…because I was one of them…unbelievable…how does he sleep at night??
July 29th, 2010 at 2:23 am