Supermarket workers to share in £30m pay-out on the back of soaring sales and profits

Workers at Tesco are to get a slice of a £30 million payout through its employee share schemes.

The payment for the more than 20,000 staff in stories and distribution centres is driven by strong growth in sales, profits and its share price.

Employees who had joined its share savings schemes were able to buy shares at a discounted price of £1.88 or £1.98 each, to either hold or sell.

Tesco said a worker who had invested the average £68 a month in the company’s five-year share-saving scheme stood to gain about £2,560 from their £4,080 investment.

Employees who had invested the maximum £500 a month stood to make a profit of almost £10,000 from the three-year scheme and almost £20,000 from the five-year scheme, if they opted to sell.

Earlier this year, Tesco came under fire from staff unions and activist shareholder over a decision to double the pay and perks package of one man, its chief executive Ken Murphy, to £10 million.

Tesco said that about 52,000 of its 300,000 workers took part in its save-as-you-earn scheme, the largest in Britain, with different schemes maturing each year. Tesco workers have invested £63.5 million in the schemes since 2019.

Emma Taylor, chief people officer at Tesco, said: “Colleagues tell us they like this way of saving every month."

She continued: "When Tesco performs well, our colleagues share in a multimillion-pound payout or can keep shares bought at a discounted rate.”

Shares in the grocer, which also owns the Booker grocery wholesaler and runs stores in eastern Europe and the Republic of Ireland as well as in the UK, have been popular with investors in recent years, on the back of the group’s improved profits and market share.

Tesco’s statutory pre-tax profit leapt by 159.5 per cent to £2.29 billion in the 12 months to February 24.