Lidl applies hefty discount to directors’ pay

BOSSES at Lidl have seen their pay slashed after the supermarket’s UK arm plunged into a loss. Accounts for the discounter’s British business show that its highest-paid director, believed to be chief executive Ryan McDonnell, was paid £855,000 in the year to February, down from £1.5million previously. The news comes days after Lidl warned it was battling to keep a lid on prices as costs soared ‘across the board’. These led to the German firm’s UK arm racking up losses of £76million, against a £41million profit in 2022. Lidl has expanded rapidly in recent years and has 960 stores and 7.6 per cent of the grocery market. But its breakneck growth has come at a price. Staff costs leapt by 17 per cent to £780 million as employees rose to almost 30,000. Lidl said it had kept its position as the UK’s toppaying grocer by spending almost £50 million lifting its minimum rates.