MORE than 45,000 staff at supermarket chain Tesco are about to share a £110m windfall from the company's savings scheme.

Some workers may get as much as £30,000 from two of Tesco's Save as You Earn (SAYE) schemes. Staff save up to £250 each month for the three or five-year lifetime of the scheme.

When it matures, they receive a bonus equivalent to 2.75 monthly payments for those in the three-year scheme and 7.5 payments for those in the five-year scheme.

They then have the option to buy Tesco shares at a price set when they joined. Those who started five years ago can buy shares at the 1998 option price of 136p, while those who joined in 2000 can buy them at 198p.

Staff are then free to sell their shares at a profit - shares are currently 240p - or keep them as an investment.

Tesco said more than 67 per cent of staff were choosing to reinvest their shares and leave them to mature in the SAYE scheme.

The most recent three and five-year schemes offered to Tesco employees last October attracted more than 40,800 and 23,600 applications respectively.

Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive, said: "SAYE is a safe and easy way for staff to save and provides real rewards for all their efforts."

The windfall comes only weeks after the retailer announced a bumper set of sales figures for the Christmas period, with like-for-like UK sales rising 7.5 per cent in the seven weeks to January 3.