Over 20,000 Tesco employees are to take a share in a windfall profit of more than £30m after the strong performance of the supermarket giant’s Save as You Earn colleague share scheme.
Colleagues who joined the scheme are able to buy shares at a discounted price of £1.88 or £1.98 each and either keep them for the longer term or sell them and make a profit on each share, with Tesco’s share price having sat at £3.06 earlier this week.
Employees, many of which are shopfloor workers in stores and distribution centres, who invested the maximum £500 a month into the share savings schemes stand to make a personal profit of almost £10,000 from the three-year scheme and nearly £20,000 from the five-year scheme if they opt to sell the shares.
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A Tesco store colleague who invested the average £68 a month for the last five years stands to net around £6,640 from their £4,080 investment – a profit of £2,560.
The Tesco SAYE scheme has seen a total of 52,000 colleagues taking part and since 2019, workers have invested £63.5m.
Tesco chief people officer Emma Taylor said: “It’s great news that more than 20,000 colleagues will benefit this year from our share schemes. This is just one of the many benefits available to our colleagues, and the strong performance of the schemes this year is a reflection of their hard work and the brilliant job that they do serving our customers every day.
“Colleagues tell us they like this way of saving every month – and when Tesco performs well, they share in a multi-million pound payout or can keep shares bought at a discounted rate.
“This year the schemes’ success is rewarding our colleagues with thousands of pounds in profit, helping to boost their savings for everything from holidays to house renovations.”
