Tate & Lyle lured Javed Ahmed to become chief executive with a package potentially worth more than £15m over the next three years, the sugar group's annual report has revealed.

The report also revealed that Tate's outgoing chief executive, Iain Ferguson, suffered his second successive year of decline in wages and that the company's new chairman, Sir Peter Gershon, will be paid £65,000 less than his predecessor.

Although Mr Ahmed's basic salary will be, at £675,000, some £50,000 shy of Mr Ferguson's, when he becomes chief executive in October, he could, depending on performance, receive £1m in annual cash bonuses and more than £2m in Tate shares.

The share awards "are designed to provide a suitable ongoing incentive during the early years of his career with Tate & Lyle", the annual report said.

In addition, Mr Ahmed is entitled to £4.4m in shares over the next three years in recompense for benefits he gave up by quitting as head of European operations at Reckitt Benckiser, the household products giant.

'Highly regarded' 

Mr Ahmed's appointment was widely welcomed by investors when it was announced in May, sending Tate shares soaring 12%.

"Mr Ahmed was highly regarded at Reckitt & Benckiser," Jeremy Batstone-Carr, the Charles Stanley analyst, said.

He added that the new CEO was likely to take Tate on a different course to Mr Ferguson, but that "a strategic overhaul could be a year ahead or more".

Bonus lost

Mr Ferguson - who joined Tate six years ago from Unilever, one of Reckitt's biggest rivals - missed out on a bonus after the group fell short of financial targets in the year to the end of March, when the group's earnings dropped 63% to £70m including one-off charges.

His total cash awards including pension allowance fell to £1.04m from £1.26m the previous year, when he received a £250,000 bonus, and £1.59m in 2006-07.