More than 3,000 staff at AO World could share a bonus pot of £240million under the terms of a new incentive scheme.
A new “Value Creation Plan” is intended to reward “exceptional” performance at the Bolton-based online retailer.
It will pay out bonuses to staff for share price rises above £5.23 – it is currently £1.64 – and staff will share the £240m pot if the company’s share price rises eightfold over the next five years.
Company founder John Roberts – who owns 23% of the business – and chief financial officer Mark Higgins would be in line to receive a maximum £20m under the scheme.
Roberts, who has pledged to donate all his award to charity, said: “The decision to create an opportunity for every AO employee to receive a meaningful reward for the value they create is one that I’m proud to tell my mum about.
“The AO VCP rewards exceptional performance and value creation and we will achieve it through our passion to serve customers brilliantly with a long term lens. AO is now set up to benefit from the accelerated structural shift to online in the UK and Germany and our model is now truly scalable.
“It is a vote of confidence in our people and the future we’re building as well as the embodiment of our One AO model because it rewards the exceptional value that the AO team is capable of creating together.”
AO World last week reported a pre-tax profit of £1.5m, against a £20m loss last year, with sales jumping by almost 16% to £1bn for the year to the end of March.
