PDF (3.6 MB) - Valora

38
ANNUAL REPORT VALORA 2009
interVieW
let’s turn to employment policy. in
2009 Valora negotiated a general
employment contract. are there further
plans for this year? will new
jobs be created?
Thomas Vollmoeller: At the moment we
have no plans to add jobs. Rather the
opposite, in fact. In Switzerland we intend
to work more cost-effectively. But
we also want our k kiosk staff to be
more contented, as that will help them
to sell more. That is why we want them
to be able to contribute their own ideas.
This is something we are working on.
Rolando Benedick: This year we have
again adjusted our lowest rates of
pay and we have also modernised our
pension fund benefits in a way which
means improved pension conditions for
most of our staff, particularly those in
sales.
in 2009 you opened a new logistics
centre in egerkingen. you are also
investing in new formats. what other
investments are being made?
Thomas Vollmoeller: The main investments
are in the Retail area, especially
the avec. shops. This year we will also
open some ten new P&B outlets and a
number of Caffè Spettacolo units, as
well as reconfiguring further k kiosk
sites. IT remains a big area of investment.
This year we are in the process of
completing the last 30 percent of a major
project to establish a state-of-theart
IT platform which will enable us to
work very efficiently.
Rolando Benedick: As part of our management
and Board responsibilities, we
also want to have good corporate governance.
We will be making some recommendations
on this to our General
Meeting. We intend to publish our remuneration
system. We will also recommend
that the 5 percent threshold
on voting rights be lifted. In 2010 we
intend to do for our shareholders what
we did for our staff in 2009. Profitability
will be increased and our dividend
will be raised.
Valora shares have done well over
the last 12 months. why is that?
Rolando Benedick: That’s true. Our
shares rose by more than 60 percent last
year. This valuation reflects renewed
confidence in our company. Valora’s
management and Board are delivering
on their promises and implementing
their decisions. It is important for
this year we have
to achieve organic
growth anD try to
make an acquisition –
proviDeD of course
that it offers a suitable
potential yielD
anD is fully compatible
with our core
retail, services anD
traDe businesses.
shareholders to see that we are making
progress. We now have the right people
in the right places. We also have the will
to grow rather than act defensively.
Thomas Vollmoeller: Having our strat-
egy understood and its implementation
seen to be going ahead means confidence
in the future. The share price
reflects that. Whether it reflects it sufficiently
is not for us to say. That is for
investors, analysts and financial journalists
to judge.
would you like to expand into other
markets? at the moment, your operations
are mainly in northern and
Central europe? is eastern europe
a possibility?
Thomas Vollmoeller: We will examine
this division by division. In the Media
area, it makes sense for us to expand
into those markets where we have our
German publishers as customers. I am
completely relaxed about Retail. All european
markets are theoretically possible
there. First, however, we need
to prove that we have developed our
small outlet retail expertise in our current
markets, so that we can then cross
new borders. For Valora Trade, we tend
to prefer smaller markets. We can also
increasingly offer our Trade services,
which are based on substantial market
know how, through regional platforms.
This potentially includes Eastern European
markets like Slovakia, Slovenia,
the Czech Republic and across the Bal