Sysco CEO earns $3.2 million in 2009 fiscal year

By ASHLEY M. HEHER

posted: 48 DAYS 7 HOURS AGO

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CHICAGO -CEO William J. DeLaney at food distributor Sysco Corp. saw his total compensation dip 4 percent during the most recent fiscal year, even as he was promoted to the company's top post this spring, according to an Associated Press analysis of a regulatory filing.

The 53-year-old, who succeeded Richard J. Schnieders in April, received compensation valued by the AP at $3.2 million in the company's 2009 fiscal year, which ended in June. That's slightly less than the $3.4 million he got the previous year.

DeLaney's base salary climbed nearly 11 percent to $620,375. But his performance-based cash bonuses slid more than 96 percent to $72,200, down from nearly $2.1 million last year, according to a filing made Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

That $72,000 included cash performance units, or payouts with the same value of shares, issued in 2006, which covered the company's performance over a 3-year period. Sysco did not pay an annual bonus to DeLaney for 2009 because the company's profits didn't rise at least 4 percent.

Sysco, like others in corporate America, only partially offset sliding revenue with cost-cutting measures, such as job and pay cuts.

But other parts of DeLaney's overall compensation ballooned. The value of DeLaney's stock options and restricted stock awards increased fivefold to $2.5 million, as the company awarded him additional stock options in February in connection with his promotion to CEO.

He received about $12,000 in perks such as insurance coverage and an annual medical exam, among other items, much less than the $210,000 worth he received the year before.

By comparison, the compensation package for Schnieders, who was CEO most of fiscal 2009, was worth about $5 million, according to the AP formula.

The Associated Press formula is designed to isolate the value the company's board placed on the executive's total compensation package during the last fiscal year. It includes salary, bonus, performance-related bonuses, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year. The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they sometimes differ from the totals companies list in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with the SEC, which reflect the size of the accounting charge taken for the executive's compensation in the previous fiscal year.

Sysco distributes food to restaurants, health care and school facilities, hotels and other customers who prepare meals away from home. The Houston-based company's full-year profit fell 5 percent to $1.06 billion, or $1.77 per share, from $1.11 billion, or $1.81 per share, a year before.

Annual revenue declined 2 percent to $36.85 billion from $37.52 billion in the previous year.

The company's stock slid 18 percent during the fiscal year, to end at $22.98. It climbed 49 cents, or 2 percent, to $25.02 in afternoon trading Friday.

2009-10-09 15:32:13