Annual report 2004 (English) - PDF 3546K - Imperial Tobacco

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Other logistics services
Logista’s ongoing expansion of consumer-product
distribution to service stations generated good results in
2004, with economic sales posting double-digit growth.
The quality of all services provided for the Repsol-YPF
group was further reinforced during the year, and
Logista plans to use this leading-edge know-how to win
new Spanish customers in this segment.
Logi Rest, a company specialized in logistics services
for restaurants, signed a contract with a fast-food chain
in 2004.
Stamps and documents
An increasing number of e-recharge terminals is being
installed, primarily for use in mobile-phone recharging
but also with applications for other products. Logista
has already installed 9,800 terminals for mobile phones
and is pioneering their use for transportation tickets as
well. Convinced of the sales potential for multi-product
e-recharging, the company is now investing in the
development of terminals for this market.
France
Non-tobacco logistics activities in France are
concentrated in the 1’DIS Group, the leading central
purchasing and services agency for convenience outlets.
1’DIS is made up of three units, each of which focuses on
one or several different distribution networks:
SAF, for tobacco and newspaper/magazine outlets;
Supergroup, for food retailers – bakeries, grocery stores,
large and medium-sized outlets;
Rouge Papier, for bookstores, stationers and
offi ce-supply outlets.
1’DIS is concentrating on the development of concepts
applicable to all the networks in order to broaden the
scope of products offered to its 70,000 customers.
In 2004, 1’DIS intensifi ed its diversifi cation policy in
order to at least partially offset the negative effects of
trends in certain markets, notably tobacco products and
newspapers/magazines.
SAF, for example, which had to face an approximately
10% loss in patronage of tobacco outlets linked to the
sharp drop in consumption in 2004, pursued its policy of
new product and service launchings in order to maintain
its front-running position. In pre-paid telephone
media, the success of e-recharges continued in 2004.
Developed at the request of mobile phone operators,
the e-recharge is a receipt issued directly from the
tobacconist’s Strator terminal. During the year, this
system was extended with a SAF innovation launched
with the operator Télé2: the fi rst e-recharge for fi xed
telephones. SAF also distributes SFR phonecards and
prepaid fi xed-telephone cards.