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ABERDEENSHIRE craft-beer maker BrewDog has expanded a fund it launched a year ago so that charities as well as its staff can share in what is expected to be a £45 million pool of profits over the next five years.

The company launched its Unicorn Fund in July last year to allow all staff to receive an equal share of 10 per cent of the profits generated in their business division. Brewery staff therefore share in the brewery profits while those working in bars receive a share of the profits generated in their particular bar.

The company, which was valued at £1 billion earlier this year when it sold a stake to US private equity house TSG Consumer Partners, has now extended the fund so that charities chosen by staff members and investors can also benefit.

While the firm has committed to giving away 20 per cent of its profits each year "forever", chairman James Watt said that over the next five years it expects to hand over in excess of £45m "if we hit our targets". That means that as-yet unnamed charities stand to benefit to the tune of around £4.5m in each of the next five years.

Mr Watt said the move would "change our business forever".

"The BrewDog Unicorn Fund is destined to become central to our business as we look to democratise positive impact and use craft beer to make the world a better place for everyone," he said.

"We are going to share 10 per cent of our profits evenly with our entire team and, furthermore, we are going to donate 10 per cent of our profits each year to charities directly chosen by our team members and by our equity-punk community.

"In addition we are formally committing to reinvest the entire balance of our profits each year, for at least the next seven years, into the two things we care about most - our beer and our people - in order to fuel further growth."

BrewDog has grown dramatically since Mr Watt and cofounder Martin Dickie launched the business from a shed in Fraserburgh 10 years ago. From a standing start in 2007 it turned over £71.9m last year and generated a gross profit of £24.8m and pre-tax profit of £3.8m, with Mr Watt and Mr Dickie each pocketing in the region of £50m after TSG paid £213m for a 22.3 per cent stake in the business in April.

It has not all been plain sailing though, with the firm this year falling well short of its US crowdfunding round in addition to closing a number of newly launched bars and being forced to pull the plug on three further launches.

Having targeted $50m to fund its expansion in the US, where it recently opened a brewery in Ohio, the company closed its Equity for Punks USA round earlier this month after raising just $7m of the total.

Its bars in Hong Kong and Finnish city Turku, which opened in 2016 and 2015 respectively, have closed since the start of the year and it has also shelved plans for new openings in London, Dublin and Paris after failing to iron out issues with landlords and licence partners.

BrewDog, which prides itself on its distinctive branding, also ran into difficulties after the estate of music legend Elvis Presley opposed its application to trademark the name Elvis Juice for an American IPA that it brought to market in March 2016.

In June the UK Intellectual Property Office sided with Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE) and rejected BrewDog's application, although the company is still selling the beer.

It would be possible for BrewDog to appeal that decision, either directly to an appointed person at the UKIPO or to the Court of Session in Edinburgh, although the company has not confirmed whether it plans to do this or whether it has applied to EPE to license the name.

If it did choose to appeal to the Court of Session it would be breaking new legal ground, with the court only ever ruling on one appeal of a UKIPO decision.

That case was decided in July this year.

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BrewDog adds charity giving to staff profit-sharing fund

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ABERDEENSHIRE craft-beer maker BrewDog has expanded a fund it launched a year ago so that charities as well as its staff can share in what is expected to be a £45 million pool of profits over the next five years.

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Time rates are used when employees are paid for the amount of time they spend at work. This is the most common method of payment in the UK.

The usual form of time rate is the weekly wage or monthly salary. Usually the time rate is fixed in relation to a standard working week (e.g. 35 hours per week). The employment contract for a time-rate employee will also stipulate the amount of paid leave that the employee can take each year (e.g. 5 weeks paid holiday).

Time worked over this standard is known as overtime. Overtime is generally paid at a higher rate than the standard time-rate - reflecting the element of sacrifice by an employee. However, many employees who are paid a monthly salary do not get paid overtime. This is usually the case for managerial positions where it is generally accepted that the hours worked need to be sufficient to fulfil the role required.

The main advantages of time-rate pay are:

* Time rates are simple for a business to calculate and administer
* They are suitable for businesses that wish to employ staff to provide general roles (e.g. financial management, administration, maintenance) where employee productivity is not easy to measure
* It is easy to understand from an employee's perspective
* The employee can budget personal finance with some certainty
* Makes it easier for the employer to plan and budget for employee costs (e.g. payroll costs will be a function of overall headcount rather than estimated output)

The main disadvantages of time-rate pay are:

* Does little to encourage greater productivity - there is no incentive to achieve greater output
* Time-rate payroll costs have a tendency to creep upwards (e.g. due to inflation-related pay rises and employee promotion

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Q&A - Explain "time-rate" pay | tutor2u Business

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Time rates are used when employees are paid for the amount of time they spend at work. This is the most common method of payment in the UK. The usual form of time rate is the weekly wage or monthly salary. Usually the time rate is fixed in relation to a standard working week (e.g.

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Overtime law - what is overtime, overtime pay, employee rights, part-time workers and time off in lieu

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What Are Fringe Benefits for an Employee?

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Fringe benefits provide ways for employers to attract and keep top talent. Business owners should be mindful of whether a benefit is taxed or untaxed, and be able to provide statements to employees that can be used when an employee completes her tax return.

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Many technology sales jobs are paid on a commission basis.

laptop, salesman and the customers image by Dmitri MIkitenko from Fotolia.com

Commission is a payment based on the amount of sales an employee makes. Commission is usually based on a percentage of total sales, so the more sales made, the more money the employee takes home. Many commission-based salaries also pay a base salary, although the percent of salary made up of commission can vary from just a few percent to almost the entire salary. Sales jobs that are commonly paid with a commission-based salary include real estate, computing and technology systems, and automobiles.

Benefits of Commission Pay

Many sales jobs pay on a commission basis. This is because sales personnel contribute directly to company revenue. The more sales made, the more money the company makes. The concept behind paying on a commission basis is that sales representatives will work harder to make sales if their income depends on it. Paying based on commission is also a way for companies to keep payroll costs down, since the amount paid to sales representatives is directly related to the amount of revenue generated. This also means that companies are not spending a lot of money paying for salespeople who are ineffective.

Types of Commission

There are two basic ways to set commission. One is a flat commission. This is usually a percentage, such as 5 percent, on any sale the representative makes. Businesses can also use a ramped commission, where the percentage of commission rises as sales representatives hit certain targets. For example, the representative may earn a 10 percent commission on the first $50,000 worth of goods or services, a 15 percent commission on the next $50,000 and a 20 percent commission on anything above $100,000. Ramped commission may also be based on targets, such as a 10 percent commission on any sales up to a set target, then a 20 percent commission on any sales after that.

Base Salary

Many jobs that pay on a commission basis also pay a base salary. The base salary may vary greatly from business to business. A base salary is designed to help sales representatives manage their cash flow and should cover basic living expenses. To set a base salary, first decide how much each representative should earn in total, then set a base salary/commission mix so that most of your sales reps will earn this salary. A typical mix is 30 percent income from base salary and 70 percent from commission. A company with few competitors may choose a 50:50 mix, while a company that wants to really push sales could consider a lower base salary or no base salary at all.

Disadvantages of Commission

While a commission-based salary plan can enable some sales reps to earn very high salaries, it does have some drawbacks. Salespeople paid on commission may be very anxious to make a sale and consequently spend less time explaining products or services to potential clients. This can discourage customers or lead them to buy a product they are not really happy with. In very high value sales, sales reps may end up earning more than anyone else in the company, which can cause resentment and prevent employees from working cohesively as a team. If commissions are only paid out every few months, the sales force may end up only working hard right before the deadline.

About the Author

Since graduating with a degree in biology, Lisa Magloff has worked in many countries. Accordingly, she specializes in writing about science and travel and has written for publications as diverse as the "Snowmass Sun" and "Caterer Middle East." With numerous published books and newspaper and magazine articles to her credit, Magloff has an eclectic knowledge of everything from cooking to nuclear reactor maintenance.

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Commission is a payment based on the amount of sales an employee makes. Commission is usually based on a percentage of total sales, so the more sales made, the more money the employee takes home. Many commission-based salaries also pay a base salary, although the percent of salary made up of commission can vary from just a few percent to almost the entire salary.

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George Weston, the boss of Primark owner Associated British Foods, has banked a 23% pay rise to £7.15m thanks to bonuses linked to the food and fashion group's achievements in previous years.

Weston's basic salary rose to £973,000, up 2.6% on the previous year in line with the rest of the company's employees, but his take-home pay was lifted by an increase in the value of long-term incentives to £4.8m from £3.1m in 2013, according to the company's annual report published on Thursday. Weston also received £15,000 in other benefits, £457,000 towards his pension and an £894,000 annual bonus.

Finance director John Bason, the group's only other executive director, also saw his pay jump 21% to £4.8m thanks to a £3.2m long-term bonus. Both received all the possible bonus shares allocated to them in 2011 under the long-term scheme after ABF achieved earnings per share growth of more than 12% in the three years to 2014.

For the year ahead, Weston's basic salary will rise above £1m for the first time. A short-term bonus of up to 150% of base salary and a long-term bonus of up to 200% of salary could again take his total pay to more than £5m including benefits such as a company car and private medical insurance.

The company said in the annual report: "We are satisfied that pay outcomes for the financial year 2013/14 reflect overall business performance."

It said that with the exception of its sugar business underlying operating profit increased in all divisions, particularly in agriculture and Primark, which it said was "well positioned to maintain its growth momentum."

It added that the performance resulted in a short-term incentive payment slightly above the mid-level of what was possible.

The revelation of Weston's pay comes after the company announced a 30% surge in profits in the year to 17 September at Primark which helped to offset problems in ABF's sugar business. That underpinned an 18% rise in group pretax profits to £1.02bn despite a 3% fall in revenues to £12.9bn.
Topics

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Associated British Foods boss's pay rises 23% thanks to bonuses

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George Weston, the boss of Primark owner Associated British Foods, has banked a 23% pay rise to £7.15m thanks to bonuses linked to the food and fashion group's achievements in previous years.

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Performance related pay is generally used where employee performance cannot be appropriately measured in terms of output produced or sales achieved.

Whilst the detail of real performance-related schemes varies from business to business, there are several common features:

Individual performance is reviewed regularly (usually once per year) against agreed objectives or performance standards. This is the performance appraisal

At the end of the appraisal, employees are categorised into performance groups - which determine what the reward will be

The method of reward will vary, but traditionally it involves a cash bonus and/or increase in wage rate or salary

Performance-related pay has grown widely in recent years - particularly in the public sector. This is part of a movement towards rewarding individual performance which reflects individual circumstances.

There are several problems with performance-related pay:

There may be disputes about how performance is measured and whether an employee has done enough to be rewarded

Rewarding employees individually does very little to encourage teamwork

There is doubt about whether performance-related pay actually does anything to motivate employees. This may be because the performance element is usually only a small percentage of total pay

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Performance-related pay | tutor2u Business

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Performance related pay is generally used where employee performance cannot be appropriately measured in terms of output produced or sales achieved. Whilst the detail of real performance-related schemes varies from business to business, there are several common features: Individual performance is reviewed regularly (usually once per year) against agreed objectives or performance standards.

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In this Revision Bite you learn how managers can encourage employees to do a better job than they otherwise would.

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Study on long distance drivers paid

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Truckers on piece rates work longer hours, take more drugs, study finds

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Truck drivers who are paid incentives to reach their destinations take fewer breaks and more drugs behind the wheel, a new study has found.

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Question and Answer

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We've just flicked the switch on moving all our digital resources to instant digital download - via our new subject stores.

For every subject you can now access each digital resource as soon as it is ordered. This will always be the latest edition of each resource too (and we'll update you automatically if there is an upgraded version to use).

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Q&A - What is "piece-rate" pay? | tutor2u Business

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We've just flicked the switch on moving all our digital resources to instant digital download - via our new subject stores. For every subject you can now access each digital resource as soon as it is ordered. This will always be the latest edition of each resource too (and we'll update you automatically if there is an upgraded version to use).