£4.1m present for Dairy Crest boss
THE departing boss of Dairy Crest pocketed £4.1m in his final year in charge of Britain's biggest dairy products group. John Houliston is due to retire as chief executive at the end of this month on his 60th birthday after more than a decade running the maker of Clover spreads, Yoplait yoghurts, Frijj milk shakes and Cathedral City cheese.
The company's latest annual report shows he picked up £445,000 salary, £410,000 in pension contributions and £1.3m from share option gains and grants of free shares.
It also shows that former director Bill Brown, who played a key role in creating Britain's first super-dairies in east London and Gloucestershire, received a £667,000 pay-off. The bumper payouts came despite a 14% fall in profits to £28.9m.
Houliston received another early birthday present last month when he cashed in more share options, netting £740,000. He is also in line to collect free shares worth an extra £1.2m when he leaves.
Houliston is credited with leading Dairy Crest, the processing arm of the old Milk Marketing Board, to a market flotation six years ago in which 29,000 farmers bought shares.
He also masterminded the £250m purchase of Unigate's dairy and cheese business two years ago. The deal helped breathe new life into Dairy Crest's battered share price, which recently hit an all-time high. But Houliston will perhaps be most remembered for one of his earliest acts: stopping production of Lymeswold, an ill-fated attempt to launch a British soft cheese, in a move that cost Dairy Crest a fortune.
