Business, Executive salaries | Coop top gets 12 million: – Absolutely horrible

A little bit yours.

(Nettavisen) The slogan from Coop takes on a slightly special ring when one studies the management salaries in the company.

The salary and pension agreement for the manager of Coop Midt-Norge, Torbjørn Skei, is sensational to say the least.

The result for 2023 was just over 12 million including salary, pension and other benefits. That is significantly more than what the CEO of Coop Norge has.

Million pension

And Torbjørn Skei’s pension in particular is high. A total of NOK six million went to Skei’s pension in 2023.

To put this into perspective. Of all the pension expenses of Coop Midt-Norge, a full eleven percent went to Skei.

The annual report states that in 2023 there were 2,683 employees in Coop Midt-Norge.

On average, the cost was pension per employee of around NOK 18,000. Skei thus received six million.

And a little out of the ordinary: If Skei were to pass away before his wife, she would receive 60 percent of his pension.

Coop is one consisting of several local teams. None of the other leaders of the local cooperatives are close to Skei when it comes to salary and pension.

– Horrible

Reputation expert Trond Blindheim uses one of Coop’s own slogans to describe the salary agreement for Skei.

– It can be heard spider game out. I have heard that many managers in Coop have high salaries, but this is horrible, he says.

– It’s fine with a high salary if they own the company, such as Røkke and Fredriksen. But here we are talking about a so-called member-owned business. It doesn’t belong anywhere, at this salary level. It’s almost comical, says Blindheim, who is a lecturer at Kristiania University College.

Coop often advertises that they are owned by the members. The slogan a little bit yours used frequently.

– It’s amazing if people want to be a member there when they hear that the bosses earn almost NOK 20,000 a day. I doubt that there are that many of the customers who want to subsidize such crazy salaries, says Blindheim.

– Do the customers care about this?

– It turns out that such cases blow over rather quickly. People care straight away, but then new issues come up and it’s quickly forgotten, says Blindheim.

– Non-Norwegian

He still believes that the payments to regional leader Skei may have consequences.

– This is very much un-Norwegian. Doubt that he is worth such a salary. When something like this is revealed, there is an uproar, says Blindheim.

Blindheim points out that the grocery industry already has a tarnished reputation, and that news like this damages the reputation even more.

– There has been a lot of negative talk about the grocery industry, and this is yet another piece of bad news that weakens confidence. I will be surprised if there are no strong reactions from trade unions or others, he says.

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Strong salary increase

Not only does Torbjørn Skei have an unusually high salary and pension. The salary increase last year was also solid, at around 10 per cent. That is twice as strong a wage increase as what most others in the country received.

Nettavisen has asked several questions to both Torbjørn Skei, and to his chairman Toril Valla.

Among other things, we asked Skei if it was his proposal that the salary should increase by 10 per cent.

He doesn’t answer that. He has only sent this short comment to Nettavisen:

– Questions related to the board’s determination of salary and conditions for the company’s managing director must be addressed to the company’s chairman. Otherwise, I have no comments, writes Torbjørn Skei.

The wife and the pension

The chairman of Coop Midt-Norge, Torild Valla, justifies the salary increase as follows:

– Annual assessment of Skei’s salary is made by the board based on the company’s size, the complexity of the activity, deliveries and target achievement.

– But was it Skei or the board who proposed that the wage increase should be ten percent?

Valla has not responded to this.

Nettavisen has also asked about the reason for the high level of Skei’s salary and pension. Furthermore:

– What is the reason why his wife should receive a solid pension if Skei passes away before her?

– Torbjørn Skei was employed as managing director of the company in 1999. An employment agreement was then entered into with salary and conditions, including pension, and it is this agreement that still applies, writes Valla in an email.

– The spouse’s right to defined benefits in the pension agreement should not have been unusual when it was entered into in 1999, and payment to her only takes effect if Skei dies before his wife, she writes.

She adds that Coop Midt-Norge is one of the few with a three percent customer yield and that the company has had solid results over several years.

– Otherwise, from here, there is no reason for further comment on this topic, she writes.