Ex-Origin Enterprises CEO O’Mahony receives €1m exit payment

Agri-services group Origin Enterprise's long-standing chief executive, Tom O'Mahony, received a €1.09 million payment in lieu of notice as he retired at the end of June after 35 years with the business, according to the company's annual report.

The payment, coming at the end of 13 years at the helm, was based off his remuneration package for the financial year to July 2019, before executives saw basic pay cut and bonuses wiped out in its latest fiscal year, due to the group’s poor financial performance.

Separate to the exit payment, Mr O’Mahony’s normal pay package slumped to €526,000 for his final 11 months with the business from €1.3 million for the previous year, according to the annual report, published on Monday.

Origin Enterprises said last month that its operating profit fell 46 per cent to €44.1 million for the year to July as the wettest autumn-winter planting season in three decades in the UK and Ireland, followed by extremely dry conditions in the spring, hit demand for seed, crop protection and fertiliser.

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In addition, the group’s amenities business, which provides turf management products for everything from golf clubs to racecourses, was also affected by Covid-19 lockdowns earlier this year.

Final dividend

Group sales for the last financial year declined by 11.6 per cent to just under €1.6 billion. In light of the figures, the company decided last month to suspend its final dividend, with a total dividend for the year of 3.15 cent, sharply down from 21.32 cent in 2019.

The annual report highlighted that directors at the group agreed a 20 per cent pay cut between April and July, while cash bonuses were not awarded for the reporting year and executive directors voluntarily waived their entitlement to unvested share options that had been granted in recent years.

Mr O'Mahony was succeeded as CEO by Sean Coyle, who joined the group two years ago as chief financial officer, having previously worked with UDG Healthcare, Aer Lingus and Ryanair.

Reduced

Mr Coyle’s base salary has been set at €510,000 and his pension entitlement has been reduced from 15 per cent of salary to 6.6 per cent, to align it with what is available generally to company employees. He was granted 222,246 stock options in July, which will vest in three years’ time, subject to earnings growth and company cash-flow conditions.