Thousands of Tesco employees to share £30m of windfall from share schemes expiring

Tesco shop workers and warehouse staff are set to share a £30m windfall from the expiry of share plans.

Employees will receive the bumper payout following “strong performance” on their Save as You Earn peer programs.

Tesco said more than 20,000 staff, mainly working in its stores and distribution centres, would benefit from strong growth in its share price, which is up a fifth on last year.

The company added that employees who had joined its share savings schemes were able to buy shares at a discounted price of £1.88 or £1.98 each, to hold or sell.

A worker who had invested an average of £68 a month in a share savings scheme for five years could earn around £2,560 from his £4,080 investment.

Employees who had invested the maximum of £500 a month would make a profit of almost £10,000 under the three-year plan and almost £20,000 under the five-year plan, if they chose to sell.

Emma Taylor, Tesco’s HR director, said: ‘It’s great news that more than 20,000 people will benefit from our share schemes this year.

‘They like this way of saving every month and when Tesco does well, they share in a multi-million pound payout or get to keep the shares bought at a discounted price.’

He said staff were being rewarded with thousands of pounds “helping them boost their savings for everything from holidays to home renovations”.

The rewards are a major boost for workers at the country’s largest private-sector employers.

This comes as inflation continues to cool amid hopes of an interest rate cut later this year.

In addition, shop staff also received a 9.1 per cent pay rise in March, to £12.02 an hour.

In total, around 52,000 of its 300,000 workers participate in income-related savings programs.

Despite stiff competition in the grocery sector, Tesco has reigned supreme in recent years.

In April it posted an 11 per cent rise in annual profits to £2.8bn for the year to February.

And it achieved total sales of £68.2 billion, an increase of 4.4 percent on the previous year.

Chief executive Ken Murphy took home a record £10m this year, made up of a £1.4m salary and performance-linked bonuses of £8.6m.

The 57-year-old’s salary was the highest ever awarded to a British supermarket boss.