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Dixons Retail boss pockets £1m in face of consumer meltdown

Browett takes big pay cut but walks away with a smile

Dixons Retail chief exec John Browett trousered over £1m in rewards during the most recent financial year, despite the group posting steep losses as it struggled to cope with the consumer meltdown.

Browett, who joined Dixons from Tesco in 2007, is masterminding a major cost-cutting drive to turn the losses into profits by serially pushing the eject button on certain country operations and by closing or re-formatting stores.

According to the annual report for 2011, the exec took a 34 per cent pay cut in the financial year ended 1 May 2011, but still enjoyed a basic of £676,000, £217,000 in pension contributions, a £122,000 cash bonus and £15,000 in taxable benefits. This was as the ailing retailer giant posted losses of £224m after taking a £309m one-off charge for closing its Spanish business and writing down goodwill on its Greek and online operation. Underlying profits were £85.5m.

FD Nicholas Cadbury quit last month as those results were unveiled to become chief bean-counter at Premier Farnell. It was revealed in the accounts today that he pocketed £564,000, including a £400,000 basic salary, in fiscal 2011.

In other changes, chairman John Allan was handed a basic salary of £253,000, up 37.5 per cent on the year earlier.

Browett and his other charges will face shareholders on 7 September at the Annual General Meeting and may have to explain why during his tenure the share price has sunk from 150 pence to around one-tenth of that level.

Perhaps they'll ask him to use some of his earnings to boost sales. ®

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