Tesco's top IT professional received a salary of more than a £1m
last year after overseeing an IT project which saved the firm
£200m.
The retail giant demonstrated its commitment to IT this week when
it revealed that Philip Clarke, the company's logistics and IT
director, received a 75% rise last year - the second biggest rise
of any director at the company, bettered only by the retail
director whose 77% rise took his salary to £1.15m.
Clarke, who was appointed to the Tesco board in 1998, was
responsible for overseeing the company's UK "step-change programme"
which achieved savings of more than £200m last year by improving IT
efficiency, the company said.
Tesco said a combination of new systems and processes had enabled
the company to realise these savings. These included:
- The introduction of a new, store-specific merchandising system
which was a world first, according to Tesco
- A new automatic scheduling system
- The expansion of a continuous replenishment system to cover
almost all food and drink lines.
The pay award was part of a £207m company-wide share-out, taking
boardroom pay to a total of £13m - an increase of 47%
overall.
The UK's biggest retailer last month reported a 14% rise in pre-tax
profits to £1.05bn.