Campbell Links Executive Pay to Share Stake : Salaries: CEO David Johnson, for example, must hold three times his 1992 base pay in company stock by the end of 1994.

NEW YORK —  Campbell Soup said Tuesday that it is introducing a stock ownership plan for its chief executive and about 70 other senior executives that would link management income with shareholder returns.

Under the plan, David Johnson, president and CEO of the Camden, N.J.-based soup and packaged-food company, is required to hold three times his 1992 base salary of $757,500 in shares by the end of 1994. He must maintain the three-times-earnings stake every year until he leaves the company.

“Campbell’s new executive stock ownership standards emphasize that management and share-owner thinking are as one,” Johnson said.

Executive or senior vice presidents are expected to buy and hold at least two times their annual base salary by 1994. Corporate vice presidents who have been with the company for three or more years will buy and hold the equivalent of one year’s base salary. Senior executives will buy shares equal to at least half their annual salaries.

All corporate officers must hold at least 1,000 shares of Campbell stock by the end of this year.

Campbell’s stock has fallen this year along with other brand-name packaged goods, from a high of $45.125 on March 11 to $38.125 today in New York Stock Exchange trading.

Institutional investors have been pushing for companies to introduce plans like Campbell’s, and a growing number of firms, including Eastman Kodak Co., Xerox Corp. and Chrysler Corp., now require or ask executives to own large stakes in the companies they run.