United Kingdom’s brewing company, Wolverhampton and Dudley’s good financial results prompted rises of around 25% in salaries for directors at the brewery. Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries is a company of outstanding quality. It runs 1,600 pubs and has got off to a good start in the current financial year with sales 5 per cent ahead in the first two months. The consensus forecast is for earnings per share to rise from 68.3p to 71.8p and for the dividend to be raised from 32.1p a share to 35p. The shares yield 4.3 %.

In the year to 27 September, new finance chief Paul Inglett saw his salary nearly double to £218,293 (US$391,268) from £110,490. Stephen Oliver, managing director of one of the company’s pub operations, The Union Pub Company, has had his income increased to £229,547 from £181,594, according to the paper. Oliver’s counterpart in the Pathfinders Pubs division, Derek Andrew, also saw his pay rise to £280,951 from £224,292, while chief executive Ralph Findlay increased his wages to £378,105 from £304,016. A spokesperson told the newspaper: “Directors’ remuneration reflects record dividends, earnings per share and a share price at an all time high.”

Following his switch to a non-executive role, chairman David Thompson saw his salary drop to £118,967 from £512,526.

In early December last year, the brewer saw its full year net profit fall by 7.7% to £38.5m from £41.7m a year ago. The company said it was hit by a £1.8m loss on the disposal of several of its high street pubs, and sales also fell by 3% to £490.5m. Despite the figures and continued cost pressure, though, W&D said at the time that the new financial year had started well.

06 January, 2004