Outgoing Hermès CEO to get $5 million 'non-competition' pay-off

PARIS, France - Hermès is to pay its outgoing chief executive Patrick Thomas nearly 1 million euros ($1.3 million) a year from 2014 to 2017 as part of a 10-year non-competition deal he signed with the luxury goods company.

According to the company's last annual report, Thomas, 66, received total remuneration of 1.98 million euros last year and will receive 966,300 euros annually for four years based on an agreement signed with Hermès.

The 176-year-old luxury goods maker, known for its 500-euro printed silk scarves and 10,000-euro Kelly bags, said the non-competition deal was signed on Nov. 20.

In 2004 Thomas became the first person to take the reins of the French luxury goods group who was not a descendant of founder Emile Hermès. He had been group managing director from 1989 to 1997.

A graduate from the Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Paris, Thomas was president of fragrance and skin care maker Lancaster group, part of Coty, from 1997 to 2000 and group managing director of British whisky maker William Grant & Sons from 2000 to 2003.

Thomas will step down in early 2014, leaving Axel Dumas, a sixth-generation descendant of the French company's founder, as chief executive, a role which he had been sharing with Thomas since June as part of an agreed transition.
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