In its annual report published this morning, Coveney is unlikely to be on the breadline as he still received a total package including bonuses and a cash pension contributions of €2.52m. Coveney saw his basic salary increase 5% to €610,000, but once bonuses and long-term incentives are taken into account, his total package was actually down.

Coveney was awarded a further 95,379 shares, with a face value of €304,000, bringing his total shareholding in Greencore to just over two million shares or €6.5m.

Alan Williams, the group CFO who quit in September as the company was concluding its £594m deal to acquire Peacock Foods in the US, also saw his total package fall €0.9m to €1.42m. His basic salary was €438,000. The main reason for the fall in total remuneration in both cases was due to large long-term incentives awarded in 2015 that distorted the comparisons.

The remuneration of its seven non-executive board directors was €488,000.

Last month’s acquisition of Peacock Foods in the US will accelerate Greencore’s US expansion plans and will quadruple its sales in the country. In the UK, it already has a 60% share of the sandwich market.

Greencore has an annual turnover of nearly £1.5bn and employs over 12,000 people across 23 sites in the UK and the US.

Shares in Greencore closed at £2.77 on Friday, 20% above the 52-week low of £2.35 set in June, but down 16% over the year.