EasyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou is to oppose the pay of the new management team at his budget hotel chain.
The entrepreneur said he will vote against easyHotel’s remuneration report and also withhold his vote on all the other resolutions at the company’s annual general meeting on Thursday.
“This is not just about salaries, this is about growing profits,” Sir Stelios said, adding that he thinks the company has a costs problem.
“Because I haven’t seen enough effort, if you like, to reduce costs, I am taking this unusual step of actually voting against the remuneration report.
“I think this is an elegant way of saying profits have to go up,” the told the Telegraph.
Stelios holds 49% of the voting rights in easyHotel, which floated in 2014 and last year posted annual profits of £790,000 on sales of £19.95 million.
The business, which on Monday announced it had secured planning permission for a 116-room site in Manchester, recently appointed a new chief executive.
Guy Parsons, joined last August with Marc Vieilledent joining as finance chief three months earlier.
According to easyHotel’s annual report, Parsons received £33,465 last year for his work between August 10 and September 30, the end of the company’s financial year, while Vieilledent, who started in May, received £100,026, including a £35,000 bonus.
Sir Stelios, who started easyJet in 1995, has a track-record of criticising the management of his companies.
EasyHotel said it took Sir Stelios’s views “very seriously”, but added: “While it seeks consensus, the board of easyHotel recognises that from time to time there may be differences over the approach to the implementation of the agreed strategy.”