Co-op’s Sutherland ‘offers resignation’

CO-OP Group chief executive Euan Sutherland is understood to have offered his resignation and feels “demoralised and fed-up”.

The move comes days after Mr Sutherland took to social media to express his anger over internal leaks regarding his £3.6m pay packet.

The BBC’s business editor Robert Peston told the Today programme on Radio 4 this morning that Mr Sutherland has drafted a resignation letter in a back-me-or-sack-me move, but “he may still resign”.

According to Mr Peston, Mr Sutherland is demoralised and believes the Co-op is ungovernable.

On Twitter Mr Peston said: “As I said on R4, Co-op Group’s chief executive Euan Sutherland has offered his resignation; board trying to persuade him to stay.”

On Sunday Mr Sutherland took to a Facebok page for Co-op staff to criticise “disaffected people” within the organisation after details of his pay were leaked.

He said such actions were designed to “undermine me personally, my team and the rest of the group board” at a time when the group needs “professionalism and loyalty”.

Information handed to The Observer revealed a £12m pot of pay and bonuses for the Co-op’s top eight executives, compared to £6m for 13 in the top team last year.

According to the leak, Mr Sutherland will receive a base salary of £1.5m and a bonus of £1.5m, regardless of performance. A “golden hello” payment to compensate him for leaving his previous employer Kingfisher takes the total to £3.6m. His predecessor Peter Marks earned £1.3m last year.

The increase in executive pay is controversial because the Co-op’s banking arm nearly collapsed last year and the group is expected to shed around 5,000 jobs this year, and report losses of around £2bn.