Coke bottling boss toasts £78m pay bonanza
He’s probably the highest-paid blue chip boss you’ve never heard of. Damian Gammell has led Coke bottler Coca-Cola Europacific Partners for a decade, in which time he has been paid £78 million.
That’s £10 million more than Bill Winters at Standard Chartered bank, who has described staff at risk from artificial intelligence as ‘lower-value human capital’.
Publicity-shy Gammell, who turns 56 next month, has led the rapid growth of CCEP, which entered the FTSE 100 index of the biggest public-listed firms last year after listing rules were changed. Its share price has tripled under Gammell, valuing it at £31 billion.
The Irishman made £10 million last year. But he is in line for an even bigger payday if a proposed bonus plan is approved at this week’s annual meeting. He could earn up to £18.2 million in a move opposed by shareholder advisory group PIRC’.
Drinking to success: CCEP’s share price has tripled under Damian Gammell, valuing it at £31 billion
It is urging shareholders to vote against the plan partly because it says the committee that sets his pay is not fully independent.
Similar concerns have been expressed by another proxy voting group, Institutional Shareholder Services.
Like Pirc, ISS opposes the re-election of two directors who sit on the pay board and represent the company’s biggest shareholders – investment group Olive Partners and The Coca-Cola Company – though ISS is in favour of Gammell’s overall pay plan.
CCEP makes the famous soft drink under licence from the Coca-Cola Company and employs 39,000 people in 31 countries, including Britain.
Its other drinks include Sprite, Fanta and Monster Energy, but its fastest growing segments are canned cocktails, coffee and sports drinks. In the UK it employs 3,600 staff in eight sites, also producing brands such as Dr Pepper and Schweppes.
CCEP admits the two directors who represent its biggest shareholders are not independent, but insists that ‘they do not have any conflicts of interest’.
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