Burberry boss Joshua Schulman eyes a £12m pay bonanza after boosting shares by a third
The boss of Burberry could earn up to £12.2million this year under a bumper pay package.
Joshua Schulman was paid £4million in the year to March for his first full year running the British luxury fashion brand, according to its latest annual report yesterday.
His pay package included a £1.2million salary and a £2.3million annual cash bonus, £120,000 in pension contributions, as well as a £370,000 allowance and benefits including covering the cost of Schulman’s relocation from New York to London.
Schulman, who took on the role of attempting to revive the struggling label’s fortunes in July 2024, had been paid £2.5million for his first nine months in the role.
He has succeeded in boosting shares in the group by around a third.
His approach has been to focus on Burberry’s staple outwear products, including its trademark check trench coat and its scarves, as well as appealing to Gen Z shoppers with star-studded advertising blitzes.
Back to basics: Burberry has been focusing on its staple outwear products, including its trademark check trench coat and its scarves
Explaining his pay, Burberry said it felt that it had ‘gained momentum’ and succeeded in ‘delivering strong growth in our core product categories through coherent storytelling with cultural relevance for global audiences utilising an expanded talent ecosystem’.
And now he stands to make as much as £12.2million this year, in a lucrative pay package which includes share awards that will not pay out for three years and depend on the company’s future performance.
His basic salary will rise by 3 per cent to £1.24million in July. This could then be topped up by an annual bonus worth up to double his salary, plus an even more lucrative share plan including a new award that could be worth up to three times his salary.
Justifying the award, the company claimed that it had chosen levels that will be ‘approximately incentivising’, ‘retentive’ and ‘reasonable’.
It said it was ‘not seeking to match’ the average performance-related share awards that can be offered to similar figures at US luxury fashion groups, ‘in recognition of the fact that we are a UK-listed company’.
Turnaround: Joshua Schulman , who took on the role of attempting to revive the struggling label’s fortunes in July 2024, has succeeded in boosting shares in the group
However, the remuneration committee said that it ‘took account of shareholder feedback’ and had decided to reduce one share award level for Schulman from 162.5 per cent of salary to 150 per cent of salary.
Earlier this month, the chief executive said that ‘this past year has marked a meaningful inflection for Burberry’ and its efforts are ‘attracting a new generation of Gen Z customers.’
Profits for the year to March were £49million, bringing the retailer back into the black after a £66million loss the year before.
Burberry has struggled in recent years after its accessories and clothes fell out of fashion amid a luxury spending slump.
Hopes that this year could see green shoots of recovery in the world of high-end goods have been dashed by the war in the Middle East depressing consumer spending.
Burberry said that sales in its division covering Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, fell 2 per cent in the three months to March 28 due to ‘the continued impact of reduced tourist activity in the region and the Middle East conflict’.
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