Burberry pays new boss almost £2.6m in nine months while axing jobs
Burberry has paid its new chief executive, Joshua Schulman, almost £2.6m in his first nine months in the job, including £380,000 in house moving costs, as the ailing British brand announced hundreds of job cuts.The company also gave its former boss Jonathan Akeroyd a payoff worth about £1.5m – a year’s notice including salary, pension and cash benefits – after he exited the company in July last year, according to the group’s annual report.The former Versace boss left less than three years after he was appointed in 2021.
This year Schulman could earn up to £5,6m if he meets bonus targets, excluding a £3,6m potential bonus if he doubles Burberry’s share price in three years with the aim of re-entering the FTSE 100,He is also in line for a further £25,000 a month in “housing allowance” for just over a year on top of £135,171 to help him find a new home, £120,655 towards transporting his effects from New York, where he previously lived, and five months of housing allowance already paid,In his first nine months, Schulman was given a £1.
2m bonus on top of his £1.356m in fixed salary, which included the moving allowances.The chunky payments to senior directors come despite Burberry revealing plans to cut 1,700 jobs worldwide by 2027 – including removing the entire night shift of 170 people at its Yorkshire raincoat factory – in an effort to tackle sliding profits.The company disclosed the plan earlier this month when it revealed it had dived to an annual loss of £66m, from a profit of £383m a year before, as it struggled in a troubled global luxury goods industry after a series of strategic missteps.Schulman, the former boss of the US fashion brand Coach, was hired last year in an attempt to turn around Burberry’s fortunes.
The group’s share price has risen almost 50% since he was appointed despite fears about the effect of Donald Trump’s plans for import tariffs and the effect on US and Chinese consumer spending.This month Schulman announced a plan to cut about a fifth of Burberry’s global workforce to bring £60m in additional cost savings on top of a £40m savings programme that he had announced in November.The annual report shows Burberry has already been reducing its workforce, with the number of employees down by more than 870 to 8,459 year on year.Burberry’s directors said in the report that they had consulted shareholders about the level of Schulman’s pay.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotion“The majority of shareholders appreciated the circumstances of Josh’s recruitment and were supportive of the design of Josh’s ongoing remuneration arrangements, the approach to his annual bonus for [the last year] and his recruitment award.
”They said directors were “mindful of the feedback received from some of our shareholders during the consultation and took this into account when determining the final level of bonus payout”.Andrew Speke, of the High Pay Centre thinktank, said: “Given Burberry’s financial struggles, it’s not surprising they’re taking cost-cutting measures.“But to be cutting thousands of jobs while continuing to pay exorbitant amounts to executives is ethically highly questionable and seems like a big strategic error.“It will cause major damage to the morale of the workforce and reflects yet another major company that appears to think that business success comes from paying the person at the top a lot of money rather than investing more equitably in the broader workforce.”
Starmer says Farage would spook the City and give us Truss 2 – he could be right
The message Zia Yusuf wanted to send was clear. With a backdrop of the City of London behind him, from the 34th floor of the Shard, the Reform UK chair laid out an economic policy designed to show his party meant business.In a briefing over a full English breakfast for some of the nation’s journalists on Friday morning, Yusuf reiterated an announcement the Reform leader, Nigel Farage, had made overnight from another hotel 5,000 miles away in Las Vegas: the party would now accept donations in bitcoin, and if elected to power would make tax and regulatory changes to bolster Britain’s adoption of cryptocurrency.As far as settings go for a press conference, commanding views over St Paul’s Cathedral and the banks and asset managers of the Square Mile, it is straight out of the Westminster playbook, even if the policy idea is pure Donald Trump.However, the trouble with Yusuf’s message to the City was not the questionable credibility of crypto – viewed with unease at the Bank of England as the wild west of finance – but the party’s broader tax and spending policies
‘One day I overheard my boss saying: just put it in ChatGPT’: the workers who lost their jobs to AI
Mateusz Demski, 31, journalist, Kraków, PolandI’ve been a freelance journalist for 10 years, usually writing for magazines and websites about cinema. I presented a morning show on Radio Kraków twice a week for about two years. It was only one part of my work, but I really enjoyed it. It was about culture and cinema, and featured a range of people, from artists to activists. I remember interviewing Ukrainians about the Russian invasion for the first programme I presented, back in 2022
Trump praises Elon Musk for ‘colossal change’ as Doge adviser says farewell
Donald Trump saw Elon Musk off from the White House on Friday, as the Tesla chief concluded his more than four months leading the disruptive foray into federal departments by the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) that achieved far fewer cost savings than expected.Standing alongside Trump in the Oval Office, Musk, who faced a 130-day limit in his tenure as a special government employee that had ended two days prior, vowed that his departure “is not the end” of Doge.“The Doge team will only grow stronger over time. The Doge influence will only grow stronger. I liken it to a sort of Buddhism – it’s like a way of life,” he said
Salutes, Maga hats and mass layoffs: Elon Musk at Doge – a timeline
In his 130 days as a special government employee, the world’s richest man slashed his way through federal agencies, laying off government employees and gaining access to data that will underpin a dismantling of the federal government.Elon Musk’s role in the Trump administration is without modern precedent. Here’s a look at some key moments in the brief tenure Musk had as a federal employee.Musk is at Trump’s side, as are a host of other tech billionaires, as he is inaugurated. He also issues an apparent fascist-style salute on stage at an inauguration celebration, twice
Is every memecoin just a scam? Experts on whether Andrew Tate and Trump are fleecing their followers
After I was turned into a memecoin, I looked into the hype behind the crypto that only a tiny percentage of people profit fromIn November last year, I was turned into a memecoin. Several, in fact.Someone alerted me that a memecoin called Dork Nerd Geek ($DNG) had been minted with a picture of my face, and it already had a market cap (the total value of all coins in circulation) of $29,000. Twenty minutes later it was $100,000. An hour later it was $800,000
The chaos Elon Musk and Doge are leaving behind in Washington
Elon Musk formally exited his role in the Trump administration on Wednesday night, ending a contentious and generally unpopular run as a senior adviser to the president and de facto head of the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge). Though he promised efficiency and modernization, Musk leaves behind a trail of uncertainty and reduced functionality.The timing of Musk’s departure lines up with the end of his 130-day term limit as a “special government employee” but also plays a part in an effort by the billionaire to signal a wider shift away from Washington as he faces backlash from the public and shareholders. Musk has recently made a show of refocusing his efforts on his tech companies in interviews, saying that he has spent too much time focused on politics and plans to reduce his political spending in the future.As Musk moves on, he consigns a mess of half-realized plans and gutted agencies to his acolytes installed in key positions across the federal government
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