Jim Nicol, the CEO of engineering firm Tomkins, has received a 59% pay rise despite thousands of job losses last year.

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.