Incoming Campbell Soup CEO Clouse to be paid up to $7.4 million in 2019 By Reuters

By Richa Naidu

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Campbell Soup Co (N:) stated on Friday that incoming Chief Executive Mark Clouse, a food business veteran, may be paid as a lot as $7.4 million in compensation for fiscal 2019.

Clouse, the previous chief of frozen food maker Pinnacle Foods, was named Campbell’s new CEO on Thursday after a seven-month search to substitute former CEO Denise Morrison, who left abruptly in May.

Campbell stated in a submitting that Clouse’s pay-packet included a base wage of $1 million and a possible bonus of $1.4 million. On Jan. 22, the day he begins working at Campbell, Clouse can even get a long-term incentive award of $5 million.

At Pinnacle Foods – the place Clouse’s tenure was marked by a 54 p.c rise in stock worth – he earned $5.22 million in 2017 and $14.1 million in 2016.

Clouse, 50, started working in the food business over twenty years in the past.

His appointment comes simply weeks after Campbell and activist hedge fund Third Point LLC settled a bitter proxy contest. Campbell has reported years of weak earnings, trailing the remainder of the food business.

“Campbell needs someone who can shake up the way the company is run, clean house and reinvigorate the brands,” Edward Jones analyst Brittany Weissman stated on Thursday.

Under Clouse’s watch earlier this 12 months, Pinnacle was bought to ConAgra Brands Inc (N:) for $8.1 billion.

On Thursday, Conagra CEO Sean Connolly stated since shopping for Pinnacle, he realized the enterprise would be “significantly” much less worthwhile than initially anticipated. Connolly stated Pinnacle’s issues had been to do with innovation at its high manufacturers, together with Birds Eye and Duncan Hines.

That “muddies Clouse’s track record a little, but he’s had a good track record for years and he’s still an ideal candidate for Campbell,” Weissman stated.

Shares in Campbell fell 5.1 p.c on Friday and have tumbled about 26 p.c this 12 months.