Methodology

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 10/4/2004 12:00:00 AM

Home Textiles Today's Executive Compensation Report is based on data from public documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All files are for the companies' 2003 fiscal year and the comparable fiscal year two years prior.

For the purpose of comparability in this report, cash compensation is defined as annual salary plus bonus plus any long-term incentive plan payouts; it excludes other cash compensation and any form of stock options.

In this report, the value of stock options on the main table refers to the value of options exercised in 2003, as stated in the company's proxy statement.

The report was prepared by senior research specialist Janice Chamberlain and database coordinator Cynthia Myers. Business editor Don Hogsett and director of market research Kay Anderson oversaw the project.

Vendor salaries
Top and bottom 5 vendors by descending amounts of 2003 salary

Retail Salaries
Top and bottom 5 retailers by descending amounts of 2003 salary

Vendor cash bonuses
Top and bottom 5 vendors by descending amounts of 2003 bonus
Slightly more than half of the textiles execs in this year's ranking picked up cash bonuses, about the same ratio as the 12 out of 21 who earned one in 2002. The biggest, $510,725, went to Jeffrey S. Lorberbaum, CEO of Mohawk, where earnings shot up by 21.3 percent. Robert G. Culp took home $353,000 from Culp Fabrics, as the company swung to a profit from a loss, and earnings before one-time charges soared up by 83.7 percent.

Retail cash bonuses
Top and bottom 5 retailers by descending amounts of 2003 bonus

Retail stock options exercised
Top and bottom 5 retailers by descending amounts of 2003 stock options exercised
Options were always designed to reward superior performance, to tie pay to productivity, and that's how it worked out last year, with the biggest options, and the biggest pay packages, going to Leonard Feinstein and Warren Eisenberg, co-founders of Bed Bath & Beyond, arguably the most successful retailing organization in all of America by almost any measurable standard.

Vendor stock options exercised
Top 5 vendors by descending amounts of 2003 stock options exercised
Given the depressed values of most home fashions stocks, stock options, once again, were virtually without any value at almost all companies that grant them. Last year, as they had the year before and the year before that, most executives found their options under water — meaning it would cost them more to exercise the option than buy the stock on the open market, making the options worthless. The exceptions to the rule last year were three companies that substantially improved their earnings — not surprisingly, three companies out of the home fashions main- stream — a floor coverings producer, Mohawk, and two decorative fabrics producers, Quaker and Culp.