Asos has been accused of rewarding its chief executive for “spectacular failure” after giving him a £300,000 pay rise even as the online fast-fashion retailer cut jobs and recorded widening losses.
José Antonio Ramos Calamonte’s total pay rose from £814,000 to £1.17m in 2024, a 44% increase, according to its annual report, published on Monday.
Asos became an investor darling during the coronavirus pandemic as locked-down shoppers shifted their spending online. However, the retailer’s share price crashed as shops reopened to the benefit of Zara and H&M, and nimbler rivals, particularly China’s Shein, muscled in on its online turf.
Asos’s shares have fallen 90% from their peak in the spring of 2021. The stock is down 60% in the time since Calamonte was appointed in June 2022, and has fallen 8% so far this year, even as the company has tried to institute a quicker turnaround from designs to manufacture.
Asos hopes the strategy will allow it to jump more quickly on to trends and help to fend off Chinese rivals – although it would also shift the industry further towards an ultra-fast-fashion business model that is often criticised because of a heavy toll on the environment when unwanted clothes are wasted.
During the year Asos reduced its number of employees by about 300, to just over 3,000 globally. It has also faced battles with some workers over conditions and recognition of unions.
Andy Prendergast, the national secretary of the GMB union, said: “It’s nauseating to see fat cat Asos bosses trousering a fortune while the share price tanks and workers lose their jobs. It’s staggering somebody can be so well rewarded for such spectacular failure. Questions must be asked how this got past the board.”
An Asos spokesperson said: “All employee renumeration, including bonus, is approved by the board and based on industry benchmarks and achieving strategically important objectives. Despite challenging market conditions, Asos has made considerable progress to transform the business over the last 12 months.
“Product is in the strongest position it has been in for years, while profitability has been fundamentally improved, leading to the delivery of positive adjusted [earnings] and significantly improved free cash flow.”
The company reported an increased pre-tax loss of £379.3m in the year to 1 September, up from £296.7m the year before. Sales in the year slumped by 12%, and analysts at Panmure Liberum, a stockbroker, likened the efforts to turn it round to “catching a falling knife”.
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Wayne Brown at Panmure Liberum wrote that Asos should consider putting itself up for sale. Its slump in fortunes is in stark contrast to Shein, which is considering a stock market listing in London after its efforts to float in New York were rebuffed by regulators.
Shein was valued at more than £50bn last year, which would make it one of the biggest initial public offerings ever on the London Stock Exchange. It is hoping to list early next year, the Times reported on Monday.
The rise in Calamonte’s pay came because he was awarded £376,000 in bonuses, although a fall in the value of other perks slightly offset it.
The increase means it would take the median Asos worker 20 years to make what Calamonte made in one year – although that was an improvement compared with the 2019-20 financial year, when the ratio reached 38 under Nick Beighton. Beighton resigned in 2021 as profits slumped.