Bookseller’s £7m salary


Waterstones, the UK’s leading bookshop chain, has been in the headlines, and on the defensive, after going incognito at some of its newer stores.


The firm has opened three shops in Suffolk, East Sussex and Hertfordshire that do not feature its distinctive branding, prompting accusations of deception. But Waterstones’ chief executive James Daunt told the BBC the move was justified, saying he wanted the shops to have a more independent feel.


Out of the headlines, but also incognito, is the boardroom recipient of a huge salary. As a private limited company, Waterstones Holdings is only required by company law to give the remuneration bill for its directors and the remuneration of its highest paid director, who doesn’t have to be named.


Waterstone’s latest annual report and accounts filed at Companies House show that in the year ending April 2016 its highest paid director received £7,249,000. The previous year the unnamed highest paid director — who could be a different person — received “just” £275,000.


The likelihood is that the recipient of the £7 million is Daunt, who was brought in by Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut in 2011 to turn the business around, as in 2016 Waterstone’s made a pre-tax profit for the first time since 2008.


www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39101186


https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07673642/filing-history