More than 20,000 Tesco employees will share a windfall profit of more than £30 million from maturing stock schemes, the retailer said on Wednesday.
Britain’s largest supermarket group said the employees, who mostly work in stores and distribution centres, have benefitted from strong growth in Tesco’s share price.
The share prices has risen by 23% over the past year.
Economic think tanks have in the past described Britain as a laggard in the area of minimum employee benefits.
However, a tight labour market following Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic has prompted companies to improve benefits.
Tesco, which is also Britain’s largest private sector employer, increased store workers’ pay by 9.1% in March.
Workers In The Scheme
The company said on Wednesday that workers who joined its share savings schemes are able to buy shares at a discounted price of £1.88 or £1.98 each and either keep them for the longer term or sell them.
Workers who invested the maximum £500 a month stand to make a profit of almost £10,000 from the three-year scheme and nearly £20,000 from the five-year scheme if they opt to sell the shares.
A Tesco worker who invested the average £68 a month for the past five years stands to make about £6,640 from their £4,080 investment for a profit of £2,560.
Tesco shares were trading at 306p on Wednesday.
The company said that about 52,000 of its 300,000 UK workers take part in save-as-you-earn schemes.
In April, Tesco reported an 11% jump in full-year profit and last month it said its market share was growing more than any other time in the past two years as it reiterated its outlook for profit growth this year.
Chief executive Ken Murphy’s pay package for the company’s 2023/24 financial year amounted to neatly £10 million.
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