By Scott Wright

AG Barr chief executive Roger White has received an 82 per cent rise in pay in a year that saw the soft-drinks giant achieve profits in excess of pre-Covid levels.

Mr White, who has led the Irn-Bru maker since 2004, was paid a total of £1.29 million for the year ended January 30, 2022, with his remuneration including a salary of £487,000 and a bonus of £599,000. He had been paid a total of £710,000 the year before, which coincided with the start of the pandemic and did not include a bonus.

Details of Mr White’s pay for the period ended January 30 were disclosed in the remuneration report of the latest annual report from AG Barr, which was published by the Cumbernauld-based company yesterday.

AG Barr, which can trace its roots back to 1875, reported a profit before tax of £41.5m for the 53 weeks ended January 30, up 26.5% on the year before, on revenue up 18.3% to £268.6m.

The company had made a profit of £37.4m in the 52 weeks ended January 25, 2020, the year before the pandemic took hold.

Barr notes in the remuneration report that its executive directors had been “set stretching targets for profit before tax, which account for 80% of bonus opportunity for each sector”. The target range for profit before tax had been set at £31m to £36m, meaning the profit achieved was £5.5m above the maximum bonus target.

Reporting its latest results on March 29, AG Barr said all core brands had grown above pre-Covid levels during the accounting period, supported by investment and innovation, with a particular focus on the energy drinks category.

It also noted further progress had been made in establishing Funkin as the leading cocktail brand in the take home and hospitality sectors.

Mr White said the company and its brands had “once again proven their resilience in uncertain and often challenging circumstances”, amid the continued pandemic, adding that the momentum had carried over into the early weeks of the current financial year.

He noted, however, that AG Barr was facing “significant inflationary pressures” that had led it to announce price hikes “across the board” for its trade customers in February. Speaking to The Herald, Mr White said the company had tried to “carry as much of the pain” as it could in terms of costs, but reached the stage where it had to pass price rises on to its customers.

He said Barr had been taking steps to reduce rising overheads through “cost controls, belt tightening, efficiency gains and value optimisation”.