Traeger announced this week that they’ll be reporting Q1 2023 earnings on May 10th after market close. It’ll be some good insight into the grilling market heading into the warmer months.
They also released their Proxy Statement this week which details executive compensation. In there there was a surprise that we somehow missed from when Traeger went public.
With how bad 2022 was for the grill market, and tons of CEO turnover, we wanted to see how Traeger’s CEO fared.
Traeger CEO’s Compensation
The result was he earned $0 in 2022. The reason is when Traeger did their IPO Jeremy Andrus agreed to receive no compensation until December 31, 2026.
Our Board believes that the lack of cash compensation, coupled with the equity awards’ design (of vesting upon the achievement of significant stock price appreciation goals), ensures that Mr. Andrus’s compensation over the next several years is directly and solely tied to the Company’s achievement of superior performance.
Jeremy Andrus Side Letter
The board felt that the best way to tie his performance to that of the company was to give no compensation, but rely on appreciation of his equity as an incentive.
It’s a good way to reward him for the long-term performance of Traeger, which is hard to focus on with public companies.
At the same time, Traeger’s CEO isn’t exactly hurting for cash. The SEC filing has him earning $138,473,423 in 2021 in salary, stock and options.
Traeger CEO’s Ownership
According to the Proxy Statement, Jeremy Andrus has 10,447,145 shares of Traeger, or 8.5% of the company. He also has 4,150,910 unearned shared that haven’t vested yet. That much ownership ensures that it’s important for him that Traeger’s stock does well over the long-term.