Top Bonus Payouts (in $000s)

-- Home Textiles Today, 1/29/2001 12:00:00 AM

VENDORS

RETAILERS

Santa came late and left early for a lot of home textiles executives in 1999 when it came time to hand out the bonus checks. Of the 16 executives who did get a bonus, one-fourth-four of the 16-had their bonus payout cut back substantially. The biggest winner by far was Sam Samelson of Glenoit, who collected a bonus of $1.3 million; but that was a special case, an 'earn-out' he received when his company, Ex-Cell, exceeded earnings targets after its acquisition by Glenoit. The earn-out expires this year, more or less putting Samelson's bonus into the non-recurring category. Excluding Samelson's big payout, the real news was what people didn't get rather than what they did. Reflecting their company's performance and faltering stock price, a number of heavy-hitters got their bonus trimmed. Burlington ceo George Henderson had his bonus slashed by 95 percent, or $527,000, to just $25,000 from $552,000 a year ago. At the same company, former vice chairman Abe Stenberg's bonus was whittled down to $57,000 from $349,000 the prior year. At Dan River, chairman and ceo Joe Lanier cut his own bonus to $95,000 from $413,000 the prior year; and president Dick Williams's bonus was trimmed to $74,000 from $339,000.