LONDON, 2014-3-10 — /EPR Retail News/ — Nearly 11,000 Sainsbury’s colleagues will share in the company’s success as two Sharesave plans mature, with the biggest savers in the five year plan set to profit over £10,000 each, which is also tax-free.
With a share price of £3.38 when the three-year and five-year plans matured, Sainsbury’s colleagues saw an increase of 68% (five year plan) and 13% (three year plan) on their original savings. The value of shares subject to the maturity over the last eight years is over £190 million.
Sainsbury’s Chief Executive Justin King, said: “I’m delighted to see another year of great Sharesave returns to over 11,000 of our colleagues.
“It’s a great way to share our success with colleagues working right across our business.”
All Sainsbury’s colleagues with three months continuous service are invited to join. There are currently almost 34,256 colleagues saving between £5 and £250 a month into 71,334 Sainsbury’s Sharesave contracts.
Notes to editors
How does it work?
- Sainsbury’s colleagues save between £5 and £250 a month for either a 3 or 5 year term
- The share option price is set at the start of the plan and is 20% less than the share price at that time
- At the end of that term a tax-free bonus may be added (only applicable to the five year plan)
- Colleagues can decide to take their savings plus tax free bonus as cash or invest this in Sainsbury’s shares at the option price
- This is a great way of achieving tax free savings with potentially greater rewards when using the savings to purchase Sainsbury’s shares
Further background
- Colleagues who joined the 2008 five year plan will receive a tax free bonus of 7 times their monthly savings – option price £2.24
- Colleagues who joined the 2010 three year plan will receive a one-off taxable bonus, paid by Sainsbury’s, equivalent to 1.5% interest on their monthly savings – option price £2.97
- Colleagues have until 31 August to decide what they would like to do with their savings and bonus
- Colleagues have three choices: they can either use their savings and bonus to buy shares at the option price and keep them; use all of the savings and bonus to buy shares at the option price and sell them immediately; or lastly take all their savings and bonus as cash