HAMPSHIRE DIY giant B&Q today denied reports that a £5m sponsorship deal with Dame Ellen MacArthur has scuppered bonus plans for staff.

Bosses at the split-site head office in Chandler's Ford, where 1,600 employees are based, said the deal with the record-breaking Dame had nothing to do with bonuses being withheld.

The company blamed the lack of cash for employees on "disappointing" sales figures.

The comments follow public complaints by employees who said they were expecting a large windfall in their pay packets after B&Q announced annual profits of more than £400m earlier this month.

Although the bonus was not guaranteed in their contracts, some employees, including those at B&Q stores throughout the south, were expecting a boost of five per cent of their salary, which for some would have meant a bonus of £600.

One employee reportedly said: "We are disgusted by our treatment and most of us are talking about leaving."

Another worker said: "We were really counting on the bonus."

B&Q has more than 330 stores across the country and already rewarded its 36,000-strong workforce with two guaranteed payments of six per cent of their salary.

However, a B&Q spokesman said the company had no current plans to give out any bonuses because sales targets set at the beginning of the financial year had yet to be reached.

"The sponsorship deal had nothing to do with it. We paid £20m in bonuses during the last financial year and we had the sponsorship deal then."

Dame Ellen completed her 71-day solo circumnavigation of the globe in a £1.3m trimaran named after the company, and the firm's logo was splashed all over the yacht and her sailing gear.