Marks & Spencer boss’s pay jumps as his turnaround plan powers ahead

M&S boss Machin’s total pay jumped £2m to £4.7m last year, up from £2.7m the previous year – boosted by a bigger bonus and larger share award over the financial year. His flat salary for the year was £818,000 – a 22% rise.

Co-chief executive Katie Bickerstaffe, who is set to step down from M&S next month, received a similar increase – up to £4.4m, from £2.4m the previous year.

Last month, Marks & Spencer unveiled a 58% jump in profits to £716.4m, while revenues jumped 9.3% to more than £13bn.

Not only did it grow sales in its food business, but also in clothing, which had historically hampered other turnaround efforts by previous management teams.

Marks & Spencer finished the financial year with the equivalent of £46m of cash, compared with a net debt of £365m the previous year, prompting one analyst to say the retailer was in “the strongest financial health since 1997”.

A spokesman for M&S told The Telegraph: “M&S delivered a strong performance, attracting one million more customers, growing sales, market share and profits, investing in the biggest ever pay award for our store colleagues and paying a dividend to shareholders for the first time in four years.”