Including his base salary of £1.25m, pension contributions and other benefits, Mr Lewis’ total pay package hit £4.6m, a 12pc rise on the previous year, reports The Telegraph.
Last year Mr Lewis was paid a total of £4.1m, including a base salary of £570,000 and no bonus, although he was given a one-off buyout award of £3.3m to compensate him for shares he forfeited when he left his previous employer Unilever.
Mr Lewis took the reins at Tesco in September 2014 shortly before it uncovered a £326m hole in its accounts. He has been praised for leading a turnaround at the grocer, stabilising the rate of decline in its sales and selling off parts of the business not deemed essential to its core operations.
In its annual report, published today, the retailer said financial targets, which represent 80pc of executives’ bonuses, “were met almost fully”.
Chief financial officer Alan Stewart took home a total pay package of £2.6m, including a basic salary of £750,000 and a bonus of £1.6m.
Reflecting on a “significant” year for Tesco, Mr Lewis said: “We have taken decisive, immediate action on the challenges we faced.
“By focusing on fixing the fundamentals of the shopping trip for customers, we have seen improving like-for-like trends in all our markets and positive like-for-like growth for the group as a whole in the fourth quarter.”
Tesco posted a £162m pre-tax profit for the year ending February 27, compared to the £6.4bn loss it recorded in 2015 on the back of heavy property writedowns.
However Tesco’s shares have fallen 20pc since it unveiled its full-year results on April 13, after Mr Lewis warned the supermarket’s recovery “would not be in a straight line”.
The grocery sector remains beset with intense competition and price deflation. Data from Kantar Worldpanel suggested Tesco’s sales fell 1.3pc in the 12 weeks to April 24, alongside a general slump at the other “big four” grocers: Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons.
