Brambles 2006 Annual Report - Alle jaarverslagen

26
Brambles
2006 Annual Report
Madrid, Spain: This DMS mega-centre
has the capacity to store three million
cartons and is equipped with the latest
fire and security measures.
Singapore: Recall, in a joint venture partnership
with CISCO, operates the world’s tallest
information centre − its two 45 metre towers
can store approximately 2.5 million cartons.
Östersund, Sweden: Here, a tremendous
volume of unsorted (and often highly
confidential) material is “intelligently captured”
and indexed in an organised format.
Recall achieved a solid increase on last year’s results
and the highlights of its financial performance included:
• sales of US$565.7 million, up 10%;
• comparable operating profit 1 of US$97.5 million,
up 15%; and
• return on capital invested of 13%.
Recall acquired AUSDOC, an Australia-based information
business, for US$191 million in December 2005. Organic
sales growth, excluding the impact of AUSDOC, was 5%.
Recall offers businesses worldwide three lines of service:
• Document Management Solutions (DMS) – secure
indexing, storage, image capture and retrieval of
physical and digital documents;
• Secure Destruction Services (SDS) – confidential
destruction of sensitive documents, other media
and items of high intrinsic value; and
• Data Protection Services (DPS) – secure off-site
storage, rotation, protection and recovery of computer
back-up data.
Americas
Recall North America improved its performance in the
second half of the year after a relatively weak first six
months. There was a significant increase in sales resources
during the first half of the year, the benefits of which are
now being realised.
Management continued to implement a strategy of
sensibly adding to the existing service footprint by
making “bolt on” acquisitions that match customer needs.
Six businesses were acquired during the year resulting,
for example, in the expansion of DMS operations in
Seattle, Orlando and Nashville.
The continued improvement in the region’s path to
Zero Harm was extremely pleasing, with North America
exceeding its safety goals – there was a 48% improvement
in the Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate and a 14%
improvement in the Lost Time Injury Severity Rate.
The North America business was restructured in October
2005, with a model that creates greater local accountability
within the proven framework of Standard Operating
Procedures. There are now six regions within North
America, supported by 25 general managers who drive
profitability at the local level and provide very strong
accountability for operations and sales. A business
development group, supported by key account and internal
sales teams, is wholly focused on leveraging Recall’s
national service network to increase organic growth and
secure new customers in key markets.
The new structure was designed to focus the business
on sales. New activity-based sales metrics have been
successfully introduced and the results in the second
half of the year were very promising.
Similarly, a range of process improvement activities have
been implemented, using Six Sigma methodology. Five Six
Sigma Black Belts provide leadership and direction across
the region to ensure continued success in this area.
In South America, Recall Brazil continued to grow, opening
an additional mega-centre to meet demand for carton
storage in the Sao Paulo metropolitan area. The new
facility can store one million standard document cartons
on six racking floors and is protected by state-of-the-art fire
detection and suppression, and security systems. The new
mega-centre brings the total number of information centres
in the Sao Paulo metropolitan area to 16 and the country’s
total to 27.
During the year, Recall Brazil also opened a new facility
in the historic city of Salvador, expanded facilities in the
Belo Horizonte metropolitan area and finalised plans for a
new centre in Brasilia, the country’s capital, which is due
to be opened in late 2006. Recall Brazil currently manages
more than seven million cartons and leads the information
management industry.
Europe
Europe performed strongly again this year, with a
considerable lift in profit driven by good performances
in the major DMS markets of the region – Spain, France
and the United Kingdom – as well as double digit revenue
growth in Scandinavia and Germany.
Increased operational efficiency contributed to further
improvements in returns.
Recall Europe is continuing to invest in markets with high
potential for growth and profitability. One example of this
is Spain where the company recently strengthened its
position by agreeing to buy the remaining share of the joint
Notes:
All comparative trading measures referred to are in constant currency. The Directors believe constant currency comparisons to be relevant measures of
business performance. Constant currency and comparable operating profit are defined on page 171.
1 The definition of comparable operating profit and a reconciliation to the statutory operating profit of US$72.8 million are shown on page 101.