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Supervalu CEO's 2009 Pay Package Valued At $4.1M

The Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Supervalu Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Jeffrey Noddle received compensation valued at $4.1 million in fiscal 2009, down 22 percent from a year earlier, as he failed to earn a performance-based bonus.

Meanwhile, the value of his salary, stock options and other perks grew, according to an Associated Press analysis of a regulatory filing.

Noddle, 62, is a more than 30-year veteran at Eden Prarie, Minn.-based Supervalu and has served as its CEO since 2001. Supervalu recently announced that it has appointed Wal-Mart executive Craig Herkert as its new CEO but has not set a start date for Herkert to take over as Noddle moves into retirement.

The value of Noddle's pay package fell to $4.1 million for 2009, from roughly $5.3 million in the prior fiscal year.

Noddle's 2009 base salary rose 2.9 percent to $1.2 million. His pay package also included stock options valued at $2.9 million at the time they were granted, up from $2.7 million a year earlier. Perks included in his compensation increased 12 percent to $83,199. Among the perks were $26,148 for use of the company aircraft and more than $3,000 for an executive physical.

But because the company did not meet a series of performance-based goals for the year, Noddle and other top executives did not receive an annual cash bonus. In 2008, he received a performance-based bonus of $1.3 million.

Supervalu has seen some pressure during the recession from food inflation and lower margins as customers trade-down their purchases. The company has cut costs and taken other steps to manage but for fiscal 2009, Supervalu lost $2.86 billion, or $13.51 per share. That is down from a profit of $593 million, or $2.76 per share, in the previous year. Adjusted earnings were $615 million, or $2.89 per share.

Annual revenue improved to $44.56 billion from $44.05 billion for the fiscal year.

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 Securities and Exchange Commission, which reflect the size of the accounting charge taken for the executive's compensation in the previous fiscal year.