Kroger CEO gets a $667K raise

Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen got a 7.6 percent raise in 2014 – receiving a $9.5 million pay package, new company disclosures show.

More than 60 percent of McMullen’s compensation was $5.7 million worth of stock and option awards that will vest over time. The extra nearly $667,000 pales in comparison to last year’s $5.2 million raise, McMullen received as he prepared to assume the helm of the company. He became CEO on Jan. 1, 2014.

Last year, McMullen took home a $1.1 million salary, up 16.7 percent from his base pay in 2013. He also collected $2.4 million in non-equity incentive pay – a cash performance-based type of bonus – that rose 41.7 percent from the $1.7 million he received in 2013.

McMullen also collected nearly $233,000 worth of other compensation – perks including: $144,000 in dividends paid on unvested restricted stock; $55,000 in life insurance premiums; $29,000 in dividend equivalents on earned performance stock units; and $3,700 in other insurance premiums.

Kroger stock is up nearly 11 percent so far in 2015 after soaring 62 percent in 2014. Shares closed Wednesday at $71.18, up 2 cents.

After closing a $2.5 billion acquisition in Harris Teeter in early 2014, Kroger under McMullen has made additional deals to grow the retailer. Early this month, it bought high-end grocer Hiller’s Markets with seven stores in Detroit.

Last month, Kroger bought out most of consumer insights firm dunnhumbyUSA and renamed the Downtown venture 84.51°. Last August, Kroger spent $280 million to buy a Florida ecommerce player, Vitacost.com, which sells nutrition and healthy living products.

Kroger’s pay details were spelled out in the company’s proxy filed Wednesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Enquirer uses the Associated Press method of determining executive pay, which counts salary, bonus, stock and option awards, non-equity incentives and all other compensation.