Raises Within Reason for Bridgford Execs

In these days of soaring executive salaries, it’s rare to find a company whose managers’ pay isn’t rising faster than the company’s profits.

But that’s the case at Bridgford Foods Corp., the Anaheim food and meat processor. The top three honchos each got a 14.4% raise to $505,490 in fiscal 1997, according to the company’s annual proxy statement. Chairman Allan L. Bridgford, President Robert E. Schulze and Executive Committee Chairman Hugh Bridgford operate as a sort of three-man CEO.

That increase, while hefty compared with average worker standards, trailed both the company’s profit and stock-price increases. Bridgford’s 1997 profits rose 15.7%, to $6.6 million, while its stock price surged 45% to $11.70 when the fiscal year ended Oct. 31.

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Russ Stanton covers retail businesses and restaurants for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5609 and at russ.stanton@latimes.com