2.Remuneration system
2.1Remuneration components
The remuneration of the Board of Directors and the Agricultural Council is fixed remuneration. The remuneration of Group Management comprises a fixed and a variable component. Variable means: depending on success and performance in the previous financial year in connection with defined objectives (“bonus”). The variable remuneration of a member of Group Management should not exceed 50 % of fixed remuneration. No long-term variable component has been implemented. For further information on this topic see section 2.3 Remuneration of Group Management.
According to Article 29b of the Articles of Association of Emmi AG, the company can issue equity securities, conversion or option rights, or other rights to equity securities to members of the Board of Directors, the Agricultural Council and Group Management as part of their remuneration. Emmi currently intentionally forgoes share or option plans or other share ownership programmes. This is intended to ensure that the remuneration system remains straightforward and transparent.
2.2Remuneration of the Board of Directors and the Agricultural Council
The remuneration of members of the Board of Directors and the Agricultural Council is not related to performance. It is therefore purely basic remuneration, which is paid in cash. It comprises a basic salary and compensation for attending meetings. The amount of the remuneration reflects the time and work which the members invest to fulfil their duties in the Board of Directors, the Agricultural Council and the committees, as well as in the two pension fund foundations. In particular, the members of the Board of Directors and the Agricultural Council do not receive any bonus payments or other financial benefits such as employee terms and conditions or discounted share options. They have no entitlement to services or non-cash benefits.
Once a year, the Personnel and Compensation Committee assesses the remuneration of the Board of Directors compared to listed (small cap) and private Swiss companies. In doing so, it takes into account companies from the consumer goods sector with a similar level of internationalisation, together with firms based in the region from various sectors and of different sizes. Approximately 20 companies meeting the criteria given above, primarily from the food, machinery, plastics and retail industries, served as the comparison group. In addition, the committee has access to a recent external benchmark study from 2017 which compared the remuneration of the Emmi Board of Directors to external salaries and analysed whether the current remuneration and remuneration structure were in line with the market. In the year under review, no external advisor was consulted regarding the remuneration structure.
The basic remuneration, social security contributions and expenses are components of the fixed remuneration according to the table in section 6 Remuneration for the year under review. The General Meeting approves this fixed remuneration as a maximum ceiling amount for the current financial year.
2.3Remuneration of Group Management
Remuneration of the members of Group Management comprises a fixed and a variable remuneration component (short-term bonus). Both components are paid in cash.
The basic remuneration reflects the experience, knowledge and continuing performance of members of Group Management as well as the competitiveness in external market comparisons based on function-related salary benchmarks. The Personnel and Compensation Committee has available to it a current external study from 2017 for the purpose of comparing the adequacy and competitiveness of the total remuneration. The same comparison group was used for the function-related salary benchmark and for the assessment of the remuneration of the Board of Directors. In the year under review, no external advisor was consulted regarding the remuneration structure.
The basic remuneration, non-cash benefits (company car), expense allowance, and relevant social security and pension benefits are part of the fixed remuneration according to the table in section 6 Remuneration for the year under review. The General Meeting approves this fixed remuneration prospectively as a maximum ceiling amount for the coming financial year.
The Personnel and Compensation Committee decides the fixed remuneration of the CEO and other members of Group Management for the following year, taking into account the maximum ceiling amount approved by the General Meeting.
Variable remuneration: Article 29b of the Articles of Association of Emmi AG states that, in general, the variable remuneration paid to a member of Group Management must not exceed 50 % of fixed remuneration. This is a bonus based on achievement of performance targets, which is paid in cash. The amount reflects the result of the previous financial year and comprises the following three criteria:
- Group performance (weighting 50 %)
- Respective business area performance (weighting 30 %)
- Achievement of individual performance targets (weighting 20 %)
The measurement of business performance is based on the three pillars of sales, income and market share. For service areas, the relevant targets also relate to ongoing development with a view to providing the core business with continuously better support.
The non-achievement of targets may lead to this remuneration not being paid at all in extreme cases; in the event of over-achievement of targets, it can increase up to a maximum of 120 % of the target amount. The variable remuneration of the CEO and the other members of Group Management is agreed by the Personnel and Compensation Committee in connection with the business results. The General Meeting approves the total variable remuneration from the previous financial year.