Boss of meat firm hit by animal cruelty scandal handed £5million pay package
Cranswick sparked fury yesterday after awarding its boss a £5.3m package – despite animal cruelty being exposed at one of its pig farms.
Adam Couch’s pay at the meat supplier for the year to the end of March – up by 13pc from £4.7m the year before – was branded ‘disgraceful’ by campaigners.
Cranswick was at the centre of a scandal in May last year when The Mail on Sunday revealed botched killings and piglets being beaten and kicked.
Couch’s pay packet included a £975,000 salary, a bonus of £1.95m and long-term share awards worth £2.26m, as well as pension payments and benefits, Cranswick’s annual report revealed yesterday.
The annual bonus received was the maximum amount after all targets needed to achieve it were met.
Scandal: In May last year, the The Mail on Sunday exposed animal cruelty at one of Cranswick’s pig farms
That included so-called environmental, social and governance targets, with one achievement cited being the commissioning of an independent animal welfare report and the implementation of its recommendations.
The report was produced in the light of The Mail on Sunday’s revelations.
It centred on damning footage filmed over several weeks by an undercover investigator for the animal rights organisation Animal Justice Project.
Cranswick sacked four staff at its Northmoor site in Lincolnshire and ordered an investigation. Supermarkets including Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco temporarily halted supplies from the farm.
Claire Palmer, director at the Animal Justice Project, yesterday said Couch’s pay was ‘impossible to justify and is quite frankly disgraceful’.
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