Business

Woolworths CEO takes R80 million payday as profits drop

Luke Fraser

 ·4 Sep 2025

Woolworths CEO Roy Bagattini scored R80 million in remuneration in 2025 despite continued negative earnings growth for the group. 

For the financial year ended 30 June 2025, Bagattini received a base salary of R19.6 million and benefits of R4.7 million, with a guaranteed pay package of R24.3 million. 

Although he did not receive a performance bonus, he did receive R12 million in long-term incentives. This took his total remuneration to R36.5 million. 

However, this rose to R79.9 million when looking at his single-figure remuneration, a noticeable increase from the R65.3 million he earned last year. 

Single-figure remuneration takes a larger view of one’s earnings, and includes the vesting of shares with performance conditions, and consists of any income attributable to unvested long-term share schemes. 

Bagattini was not the only executive to see an increase in single-figure remuneration, with the CEO of Woolworths Food, Sam Ngumeni, seeing his remuneration increase from R20.9 million to R26 million. 

Ngumeni became CEO of Woolworths Food Foods on 1 July 2024, having previously worked as the group’s Chief Operating Officer. 

Group Finance Director Zaid Manjra saw his single-figure remuneration rise from R5.2 million in FY24 to R9.2 million in FY25. 

However, Manjra only took the role on 1 December 2023. His remuneration in the prior year was only for the seven months.

The three executives earned a combined R115.1 million in single-figure remuneration in FY25, a massive increase from the R91.4 million paid a year prior.

Woolworths in pain

The executive pay rise comes amid a poor performance from the group, which saw its profit drop on the back of challenges outside of its food business. 

The food business saw above-market turnover and concession sales growth of 11.0%, with sector-leading growth of 7.7% on a comparable-store basis.

The group’s Fashion, Beauty and Home (FBH) segment saw turnover and sales increase by 4.7% and 5.1% on a comparable store basis, respectively.

Trading momentum improved throughout the year, with H2 sales growth of 7.0%. 

That said, as part of its strategy to optimise space efficiency, net trading space for FBH decreased by 2.3% relative to the prior comparable period. 

Promotional activity, additional supply chain challenges, and higher inventory levels led to the FBH gross profit margin declining by 120 basis points to 47.3%. 

FBH’s Adjusted EBITDA of R2,491 million was a decline of 0.4% against the prior comparable period, while adjusted EBIT declined by 9.1% to R1,600 million.

Matters were only made worse by Australia’s Country Road Group (CRG), which is undergoing a massive restructuring. 

The restructure looks to reconfigure the CRG operating model and reset its structural economics as a standalone business.

The transformation occurred amid high interest rates, low consumer footfall, and an uncertain macro backdrop. Within this context, sales for CRG dropped by 5.4% and 6.8% on a comparable-store basis. 

CRG reported aEBITDA of A$103.9 million, a decline of 41.1% versus the prior comparable period, and an eEBIT loss of A$18.1 million. 

This was on the back of a reassessment of the carrying value of the assets of the underperforming brands within CRG, with these brands impaired by R917 million. 

With these issues, the group’s earnings declined by 5.5% to 273.4 cents per share. Headline earnings per share also fell by 26.4% to 268.1 cents. 

With the drop in earnings, the group’s total dividend fell from 265.5 cents per share a year prior to just 188 cents per share.