Domino’s Pizza faces shareholder revolt over executive pay rises

Domino’s Pizza Group faces a shareholder revolt at its annual meeting on Thursday after two City advisers panned its executive pay.

Both Glass Lewis and ISS have now red-flagged the chain’s plans to give chief executive Dominic Paul and finance chief Neil Smith ‘significant’ pay rises.

Paul, who was hired last May after running Costa Coffee, is paid a base salary of £750,000 – more than 40 per cent higher than that of retired boss David Wild.

Glass Lewis and ISS have red-flagged the chain’s plans to give bosses ‘significant’ pay rises

Smith, who joined last April, receives a base salary of £430,000 – almost a third on top of that received by David Bauernfeind, who died in 2019 while snorkelling in Mauritius.

ISS said the fees were ‘exceptionally high’ for a FTSE 250 firm. Glass Lewis said it viewed high fixed pay rises with ‘scepticism’ as the remuneration ‘may serve as a crutch when performance has fallen below expectations’.

Domino’s said it needed to pay more to attract ‘higher calibre talent’. Paul was paid 73.4 per cent of his maximum bonus last year, taking his total pay to £1.08million.

The fee for new chairman Matt Shattock is 109 per cent higher than previously at £480,000.

For three months of last year directors gave 20 per cent of their pay to their employee hardship fund. Last year, 7 per cent of shareholders voted against Domino’s remuneration report.

Other listed firms expecting shareholder unrest over pay include Foxtons and British American Tobacco. Power giant Drax faces criticism for a lack of women on its board.