Tesco boss Ken Murphy received a pay rise of more than £1m in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing his total compensation to £10.8m as the supermarket giant strengthened its market leadership.
Breakdown of Murphy's Pay Package
The chief executive's total package included a £1.5m basic salary, a £3.4m bonus, and a £5.7m long-term incentive plan comprising shares in the FTSE 100 company. This represents a 10% increase from the £9.8m he received in the previous year.
Murphy's basic salary is set to rise by a further 3% to £1.54m on 24 May. In comparison, chief financial officer Imran Nawaz will see an 8% increase to £900,000.
Tesco's Strong Performance
The grocer outperformed market expectations last month, reporting a 9% jump in pre-tax profit to £2.4bn. Tesco has fought to maintain its position as the UK's largest supermarket after a significant downturn around the turn of the century, when it expanded into overseas markets and banking services.
Murphy succeeded Dave Lewis as CEO in October 2020 and has intensified competition with German discounters Aldi and Lidl through price-match initiatives. Tesco announced in April that it had tripled the number of products on its "everyday low prices" line to 3,000 over the past year, with more than 600 products now price-matched to Aldi.
The CEO has also boosted technology investment, more than doubling the headcount of its technology department and expanding the Tesco app, including the launch of the last-minute delivery service Whoosh.
Challenging Targets Met
When announcing Tesco's results in April, Murphy downplayed the prospect of price inflation caused by the Iran war, stating he did not "recognise" a 9-10% food inflation forecast from the Food and Drink Federation.
Melissa Bethell, chairwoman of Tesco's board remuneration committee, said: "The remuneration for our executive directors is closely tied to the strong performance of the business. Our policy is comparable to other FTSE 50 companies and reflects the complexities of managing a large-scale operation. A significant portion of the total package has been achieved due to Ken Murphy and Imran Nawaz meeting or exceeding challenging targets in a competitive sector, creating value for all stakeholders."
