Woolworths Holdings Limited, the South African company that owns Australia’s Country Road Group, is dangling a $1.2 million performance share offer for Steven Cook – CRG’s new CEO.
This comes as Country Road Group – the holding company of Witchery, Trenery, Mimco, Politix and its namesake brand – delivered earnings losses in the 2025 financial year, driven by challenging market conditions and a separation of CRG from department store David Jones, which WHL had owned up until late 2023.
WHL confirmed the news in an update to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, which indicates Cook could earn 270,177 shares, valued at around R14,160,000 (~A$1.22 million). Cook joined as group CEO in July 2025.
According to WHL’s annual financial statements for 2025, Cook will need to meet certain criteria to score the full amount over a three-year period. In the 2025 financial year, the performance conditions are weighted between adjusted diluted headline earnings per share growth of 40 per cent, an ESG measure of 20 per cent, and 40 per cent for return on capital employed.
The performance conditions, with the exception of ESG, have a threshold for 30 per cent vesting and a target for 100 per cent vesting. ESG has a target for 100 per cent vesting only.
“All other performance conditions have vesting on a linear scale in accordance with an agreed threshold and target,” WHL reported.
The R14,160,000 incentive for Cook is the second-highest in value across WHL directors, below a R30 million incentive for WHL’s CEO, Roy Bagattini.
Country Road Group’s CFO Rosetta D’Amico is also being dangled R3.28 million worth of shares in the performance share scheme. D’Amico has led finances across Country Road Group since 2017 and has been group CFO since 2018.
Alongside a dip in earnings and profits, Country Road Group also reported a drop in sales for the 52 weeks to June 29 this year. A seven-year review graph by WHL shows CRG’s total turnover fell from R13.9 billion in 2024 to R12.4 billion in 2025, a drop of 10.5 per cent.
The Australian fashion group’s total sales peaked in the 2023 financial year at R14.49 billion, equivalent to around A$1.25 billion.