Loblaw CEO Galen Weston receives raise, compensation becomes $8.4M
The grocery chain head has come under fire recently for playing a role in runaway food inflation and grocery unaffordability.
Galen Weston took in $8.4 million in total compensation in the 2022 fiscal year in his role at the head of Loblaw Companies Ltd.
Meanwhile, Empire Company Ltd. CEO Michael Medline took in $8.7 million, while Metro Inc. CEO Eric La Fleche earned $5.4 million.
But Weston’s Loblaw compensation isn’t the full picture, as he is also head of the George Weston Ltd. holding company.
His total compensation reached $11.7 million in 2022, a nearly $1.1-million increase from the year before.
While Weston’s Loblaw compensation jumped significantly year over year, a 56 per cent increase compared with smaller increases received by his competitors, he was also promoted to the top leadership role midway through 2021, which means the two years aren’t directly comparable.
The proportion of Weston’s overall compensation from Loblaw versus the holding company shifted to 30 per cent from George Weston and 70 per cent from Loblaw as of May 6, 2021, compared with 60 per cent from George Weston and 40 per cent from Loblaw previously.
Weston’s total compensation from the two firms increased more than 11 per cent in 2022, while La Fleche’s went up seven per cent and Medline’s up 15 per cent.
The grocery chain heads have come under increasing scrutiny amid runaway food inflation, telling a parliamentary committee last month that higher prices were not caused by profit-mongering and that their margins on food sales have remained low.
Statistics Canada data shows grocery prices rose 9.8 per cent last year, and 10.6 per cent year over year in February — more than double Canada’s inflation rate.
All three grocers raked in higher profits in the first half of 2022 compared with their average performance over the past five years, according to a report last fall by the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University. But Weston told MPs that Loblaw has made bigger profits off financial services, apparel and pharmacy, and said food prices have increased about 25 times faster than Loblaw’s profit margins on food products.
MPs grilled the CEOs at the March 8 committee hearing on food inflation, with Weston in particular taking heat from NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, who repeatedly asked him, “How much profit is too much profit?”
Later in March, Walmart Canada CEO Gonzalo Gebara appeared before the same House of Commons committee with a similar message. Pierre Riel, Costco’s senior vice-president and country manager for Canada, is scheduled to appear before the agriculture committee on April 17.
