Meat giant Cranswick revealed its boss has seen his pay package swell by more than a third to £4.6 million as one of its farms remains at the centre of animal abuse claims.

In its annual report, the firm – Britain’s largest pork supplier – said chief executive Adam Couch landed a £1.7 million annual bonus and potential long-term share awards worth £1.9 million, on top of his £847,400 salary in the year to March.

His total pay jumped 34% higher, up from £3.4 million in 2023-24.

The East Yorkshire-based group also revealed that Mr Couch saw his salary hiked by more than £127,000 to £974,600 on April 1 as part of a pay review.

Details of his pay and bonuses comes less than two months after abuse claims emerged against a pig farm run by the business.

The pork producer suspended using Northmoor Farm in Lincolnshire after covert footage emerged appearing to show workers at the site abusing piglets.

Workers were filmed appearing to hold piglets by their hind legs and slamming them to the ground, using a banned method of killing the animals known as “piglet thumping”.

Major supermarkets Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco suspended Northmoor Farm as a supplier, and Cranswick shortly afterwards launched an independent review into its animal welfare policies and livestock operations.

In its annual report on Friday, Mr Couch said: “We have always placed the highest importance on animal health and wellbeing, and continuously aim to have the most stringent standards in the sector.

“We take seriously any instance, anywhere in our supply chain, where behaviour fails to meet those standards.

“We are therefore instigating a new, fully independent, expert veterinarian review of all our existing animal welfare policies, together with a comprehensive review of our livestock operations across the UK.

“We will provide a further update on this work in due course.”

On the chief executive’s salary rise, the group’s remuneration committee added in the report that there was “very strong support” for the increase among shareholders.

It added that his base salary previously did not “appropriately and fairly reflect Adam’s extensive experience and his exceptional contribution to the impressive performance of the business”.

“We believe it is critical to take decisive action now to ensure Adam is appropriately incentivised and retained to deliver Cranswick’s long-term growth ambitions,” according to the committee.

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Cranswick’s results last month showed record sales and profits for the past year.

The firm revealed revenues grew by 6.8% to £2.72 billion for the year to March, compared with the previous year, while pre-tax profits grew by 14.6% to £181.6 million.

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