AO founder and chief executive John Roberts, who will donate 100% of any reward he receives “to help disadvantaged young people in the UK”, said: “This is the AO way of doing a value creation plan. The decision to create an opportunity for every AO employee to receive a meaningful reward for the value they create is one that I’m proud to tell my mum about.”

The programme, running over a five- to seven-year period, will reward value creation above a “hurdle” share price of of £5.23 – equivalent to £2.5bn market cap – and therefore “representing exceptional growth” of about 30% per annum.