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Johnson pay at £595K

01.08.08 Philip Jones

Waterstone's managing director Gerry Johnson was the third highest paid director at parent HMV Group last year, according to its annual report. Johnson received a basic salary of £234,000 following his elevation to the main HMV board in July. He also received an annual bonus of £360,000 taking his total pay since becoming director to £595,000 in the year ended 26th April.

The remuneration put Johnson behind HMV Group chief executive Simon Fox, who received £992,000 over the financial year, including a bonus of £498,000; and group finance director Neil Bright, who earned £717,000, including a £360,000 annual bonus.

Of the book trade businesses that reveal their top directors' pay, Johnson is still well behind publishers such as Reed Elsevier chief executive Crispin Davis who was paid more than £2m in 2007; Pearson chief executive Marjorie Scardino, who took home a total of £2.3m; John Makinson, the head of Penguin, who received £1.4m; and Bloomsbury chief executive Nigel Newton who earned a total of £740,000 last year. He is also well off the £1.4m earned by WHS head Kate Swann in the year ended-August 2007.

The HMV accounts also revealed that Waterstone's sold 75m books in the year ending 26th April, with books 29% of HMV's total group sales. Over the period Waterstone's improved its sales by 5% to £564m, with profit flat after incurring £1.2m of start-up costs of the book hub distribution centre.

HMV reported that part of Johnson's bonus, £99,375, related to the integration of the Ottakar's business, of which a payment of £33,125 has been deferred for 12 months. It added that one-third of the directors' annual bonuses earned in the year was deferred for three years and would be payable in shares.

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