Mothercare's former boss Ben Gordon takes home £5m in shares and pay

Gordon departed in November 2011 after a sustained period of underperformance at the struggling retailer. He was paid a salary of £600,000, according to Mothercare’s annual report.

In the year to March new chief executive Simon Calver, who was parachuted in from Lovefilm last year, took home £580,000, which included his £462,000 salary and a bonus of £48,000. Deferred shares accounted for 30% of the bonus.

Calver is leading a far-reaching turnaround of the business, including lowering prices, revamping stores and pushing online growth. Over the next three years, Calver could take home a total of £6.7m if the retailer hits its targets. Those targets include the UK business breaking even by 2015, the share price doubling and group pretax profit hitting £70m. Lastyear the retailer generated £8.3m in group pre-tax profit. Calver must also buy £500,000 worth of shares in the retailer by 2015 to qualify for the bonus.

Mothercare’s UK losses were reduced to £21.7m in the year to March 30 from £24.7m in the previous year. Like-for-likes fell 3.6%, which was an improvement on last year’s 6.2% slump. However, UK sales declined 10.8% to £499.7m.