47153 AG Barr Annual Report 2025 AW4 SQ WEB - Flipbook - Page 87
Strategic Report
Corporate Governance
Accounts
D I R E C TO R S ’ R E M U N E R ATI O N R E P O R T
C H A I R ’ S S TATE M EN T
On behalf of the
Remuneration
Committee, I am
pleased to report on
A G Barr’s approach
to remuneration for
the year ended
25 January 2025.
Louise Smalley
Chair of the Remuneration Committee
Introduction
The current Directors’ Remuneration Policy
(‘Policy’) was approved by a binding vote at the
2023 AGM and became effective for three years
from the close of that meeting. For ease of
reference, we are including the current Policy
in this year’s Directors’ Remuneration Report
on pages 109 to 122. The Annual Report on
Remuneration on pages 89 to 108 provides
details of the amounts earned by the directors in
respect of the year ended 25 January 2025 and
how the Policy will operate for the final year it
remains effective commencing 26 January 2025.
The Annual Report on Remuneration will be
subject to an advisory vote at the 2025 AGM.
I became Chair of the Company’s Remuneration
Committee (‘Committee’) following the
conclusion of the 2024 AGM and on the
anniversary of my appointment as an
independent non-executive director to the Board.
I have been able to consider the views of
shareholders expressed in consultations prior
to my appointment in order to ensure that the
Committee could adequately reflect on the
feedback received from shareholders over the
balance of the year expressed in this report. In
addition, the start of my tenure as Chair of the
Committee coincided with a period of executive
director transition for the Company as the
number of executive directors reduced from three
to two. This change has been navigated very
effectively by our new Chief Executive Officer
and our Chief Finance and Operating Officer
under a newly expanded remit from 2025.
I wrote to key shareholders earlier this year to
outline the forward facing remuneration we were
planning to implement for the Chief Finance and
Operating Officer under his expanded remit,
inviting their direct feedback. This included
a detailed rationale for an exceptional 2025
base salary increase to reflect the individual’s
experience in role from 1 April 2025 as well as the
change we planned to implement to address the
remaining legacy contractual pension issue so
that all executive directors’ pension contributions
would be aligned with those available to the
wider workforce from April 2025. Further details
are set out later in this report.
The Committee carried out an internally facilitated
review of its performance and effectiveness
during the year. This review employed written
survey questionnaires, which were completed by
members of the Committee and the Company
Secretary. The results of the evaluation were
shared with the Committee. Overall, the review
found that the Committee was functioning in an
effective manner and performing satisfactorily
with positive feedback on the more regular
attendance of the Chief People Officer (formerly
HR Director) at Committee meetings in order to
provide regular and comprehensive context and
insight on the remuneration and engagement of
the wider workforce.
Group performance
• Revenue increased by 5.1% to £420.4m.
• Adjusted profit before tax (‘Adjusted PBT*’)
increased by 15.8% to £58.5m.
• Strong cash management ensured that the
Group exited the financial year with net cash
at bank* of £63.9m.
Shareholder experience
• An interim dividend of 3.10p per share paid in
November 2024 and a proposed final dividend
for the 2024/25 financial year of 13.76p.
• The share price at the end of the financial
year of £5.79 was c.5% higher than at the start
of the year.
• Adjusted basis Earnings Per Share* for the year
was 39.77p, an increase of 17.4% on prior year.
Employee experience
• The Group paid bonuses for the 2023/24
financial year to employees based on strong
individual performance.
• The Group increased salaries for the
workforce in April 2024 by an average of 4.2%.
• Employee engagement across the Group
increased to 78%, exceeding the industry
average by 11%.
Remuneration in context
The Company has successfully navigated a
challenging year marked by ongoing economic
volatility, including continued inflationary
pressures and rising operational costs. The
business has demonstrated considerable
resilience, and the Committee has closely
considered the impact of these factors on all our
key stakeholders and the Group’s performance
when making executive remuneration decisions
for the year. The summary below highlights some
of the key drivers influencing our decisions:
Customer experience
• Maintained strong customer support
amidst market volatility through proactive
communication and efficient product
distribution and availability.
• Maintained a product innovation pipeline
responsive to and aligned with evolving
consumer trends.
• Achieved significant growth in Rubicon sales,
with a 17% increase on prior year.
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