17th Mar 2016 13:07
LONDON (Alliance News) - Henry Engelhardt, the retiring chief executive officer of Admiral Group PLC, will hand staff of the motor insurer personal cash gifts totalling GBP7.0 million.
Together with his wife Diane, Engelhardt will give every full-time member of staff with at least a year's service GBP1,000 and all other staff GBP500. Admiral has about 7,000 staff worldwide, according to its website, with offices in the UK, Spain, Italy, France, the US, Canada and India. It is based in Cardiff, Wales.
"All Admiral staff, whether they work in Swansea or Delhi, Richmond or Rome and all places in between, will benefit from the gift," the company said.
Engelhardt, who co-founded Admiral in 1991, said: "Saying thank you to all the Admiral staff who work so hard every day to make Admiral great is the most important thing we can do."
Engelhardt will be replaced in May by Chief Operating Officer David Stevens, an Admiral co-founder whom Engelhardt met at business school about 30 years ago.
Engelhardt is the largest single shareholder in Admiral, with 11.6%, according to Morningstar. The stake is worth GBP621 million. Stevens has a 3.4% holding.
Englehardt is known for his colourful descriptions of each trading year, having described 2014 as a Baked Alaska and 2013 as a baked potato. In his final annual earnings statement as Admiral CEO earlier this month, Englehardt provided one last food-related comparison:
"I would sum up all our results since 2000 as being akin to a seedless watermelon: tasty and refreshing but somehow you always wonder 'how can that work in the future?' Every year Admiral's customer growth and profit growth always seems to take people a bit by surprise."
By Tom Waite; [email protected]; @thomaslwaite
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