Brambles 2006 Annual Report - Alle jaarverslagen

13
Brambles
2006 Annual Report
Focus on CHEP
and Recall
our premium growth
businesses
Sale of other
businesses
proceeds exceeded
expectations
Significant benefits
for shareholders
delivering above average
financial returns
Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility is also a critical element in
the concept of corporate governance and it is fundamental
to the way Brambles does business around the world.
Brambles’ Corporate Social Responsibility policies are
integrated into the organisation’s culture, communicated to
all employees and available on the Brambles website for all
stakeholders. Details are provided in the Corporate Social
Responsibility Report on page 31 of this Annual Report.
Brambles is committed to working safely and applying
industry best practice to the health, safety and wellbeing
of employees, contractors, suppliers, customers and
the communities in which it operates. Our aim is to
achieve Zero Harm – which means zero injuries and zero
environmental damage.
I am pleased to say that there was a significant
improvement in safety across Brambles during the year.
Better results were achieved in both of the two key
measures of safety – Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate and
Lost Time Injury Severity Rate*. The performance in both
these categories improved by more than 40% for CHEP,
Recall, and Brambles Corporate combined. More detailed
information is provided in the CHEP, Recall and Corporate
Social Responsibility sections of this report.
There were, however, a number of road traffic fatalities
during the year which involved CHEP and Recall vehicles.
While these may not have been the fault of our drivers,
on behalf of Brambles I extend my sincere condolences
to the families and friends of the deceased.
Outlook
A priority over the next few months is to complete the
Unification and list the new company, Brambles Limited,
on the Australian Stock Exchange with a secondary listing
on the London Stock Exchange. Subject to shareholder and
court approval, Brambles remains on track to complete this
process by early December.
Overall, CHEP is expected to deliver another year of
good performance in 2007. CHEP Americas is expected
to show robust growth in sales with ongoing operational
improvements. CHEP Europe is expected to deliver another
strong performance with continued margin expansion and
steady sales growth. CHEP Rest of World continues to
trade well.
Recall is expected to build on improvements seen in the
second half of 2006. Recall North America should benefit
from new customer contracts. Recall Europe is expected
to perform well. In Asia-Pacific, the integration of AUSDOC
continues as planned.
The outlook for Brambles remains positive. We expect to
build on the momentum of recent years and in the early
part of the current financial year Brambles is performing
well. In 2007, we expect further good progress in both
CHEP and Recall as well as solid cash generation.
Don Argus AO
Chairman
* Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) measures the number of injuries that result in an employee being absent from work for one or more whole
shifts per million exposure hours. Lost Time Injury Severity Rate (LTISR) measures the number of injury days lost per million exposure hours.