Sainsbury’s boss Coupe gets shareholder backing at AGM

Coupe, whose position has been called into question in some quarters following the collapse of its £13bn mega-merger with Asda, was re-elected by 99.5% of investors who voted at its annual meeting yesterday.

However, one Sainsbury’s shareholder dubbed the failed combination with its big four rival a “complete fiasco”.

Another stakeholder – a former Sainsbury’s employee – hit out at Coupe and the board for presiding over a slump in the share price that had “cost me and a lot of my friends a lot of money”.

Sainsbury’s share price dropped to 188p last month, its lowest level for around 30 years.

Independent investor John Farmer labelled Coupe “useless” and urged new chairman Martin Scicluna to find a new boss.

He also called into question the £3.9m pay package awarded to Coupe for the 2018/19 financial year.

“Why are you paying so much for so little?” Farmer asked. “You have the gall to pay executive directors £8m a year and another £1m for the non-executives on presumption of competence we are just not seeing.”

Some 10% of shareholders voted against Coupe’s remuneration.

But Scicluna insisted he was not looking for a new chief executive and launched a staunch defence of Coupe.

He said Coupe was a “man of great values and great integrity” and “the right guy to be serving us right now”.

Scicluna also defended the swoop on Asda as a “cracking deal” and suggested that the slump in Sainsbury’s share price was a result of investors’ reluctance to take shareholdings in retailers and domestic British companies.