Asda staff share £26.9m bonus pot

Staff at Asda are to share a record bonus pot of £26.9 million to reward them for the supermarket chain's performance in 2010.

The majority of Asda's 145,000 full-time workforce, covering 386 stores and 19 distribution depots, will be entitled to a bonus of up to £350 on Friday.

However, some 20,000 staff will receive 'superbonus' pay-outs of up to £437 after their stores or depots exceeded performance targets.

The bonus pool is £900,000 bigger than last year because the business hit internal performance targets despite widespread promotions from its competitors and disruption caused by snow in December. Staff numbers also increased after 14 stores were opened in the year.

A store at Greenhithe in Kent was the best-performing in England. Llangefni topped the performance board in Wales, Stenhousemuir was the best in Scotland and Bangor took the accolade for Northern Ireland.

Asda chief executive and president Andy Clarke said: "There is no doubt in my mind that the colleagues working in our stores and depots are the heroes of our business.

"They have worked incredibly hard this year to deliver the best for our customers - taking everything from the difficult economic climate to the great British weather in their stride. I take my hat off to them."

Asda said the bonus scheme rewards employees for participating in customer service initiatives such as its "Go Getters for Forgetters" scheme, which saw them fetch items for shoppers over the Christmas period.

The annual performance-related bonus scheme was first introduced in 1999 after Asda was acquired by American retail giant Walmart.

This is the 10th year in a row the scheme has paid a bonus and the total reward has now reached nearly £200 million.