Annual report - Alcopa

B. Comments on the Consolidated Financial
Statements
13. Trade Debts and Taxes,
Remuneration and Social Security
As a consequence of a prudent purchase approach
in view of a tight stock management, the lower year
end purchase of goods together with the reduced
volumes, resulted in a decrease of Trade Payables
with € 29,737 K.
The taxes, remuneration and social security debts
amount to € 20,133 K compared to € 22,834 K in
2008.
14. Other Amounts Payable and Accrued
Charges and Deferred Income
Next to the dividend payable to the shareholders of
€ 5,481 K, the other amounts payable of € 10,081 K
consist of bonuses to the dealers and amounts payable
to enterprises included by the equity method.
The Deferred Income and Accrued Charges mainly
consists of the deferred realized gain on a sale
and lease back operation of the group’s building in
Strépy – Belgium. In accordance with the Belgian
Accounting Principles the realized gain is spread
over the remaining lifetime of the leased assets. As
per 31 December 2009 the balance of the deferred
realized gain is € 6,187 K.
15. Operating Income
The economic climate obviously had a strong impact
on the evolution of the group turnover, that
decreased with 15.8 %.
Despite this economic climate and the changed
market conditions in the automotive sector – where
the sale of large vehicles was replaced by smaller
units in view of the environmental concerns of the
customers – the 4-wheels activities of the group
could limit the decrease in sales to 11,4 %.
Also the 2-wheels activities faced a change in customer
behavior, with a shift from motorcycles to mopeds,
resulting in a decrease in turnover of 18 %.
The Office Furniture branch was most fiercely hit
by the economic crisis and saw its turnover decline
with more than 37 %.
The segment footprint of the group changed as follows:
Turnover by LOB 2008 Turnover by LOB 2009
1 % Alcopalmmo, 11 % EOL, 19 % Moteo,
69 % Alcopa Car Distribution
1 % Alcopalmmo, 8 % EOL, 19 % Moteo,
72 % Alcopa Car Distribution
The trend in turnover can be found in almost all the regions
where the group is operational, and as such the geographical
spread of the turnover did not significantly alter.
Turnover by country 2008 Turnover by country 2009
50 % Belgium, 4 % Netherlands, 12 % Luxemburg,
11 % France, 2 % Portugal, 15 % Switzerland,
4 % others (Europe), 2 % others
52 % Belgium, 3 % Netherlands, 13 % Luxemburg,
10 % France, 2 % Portugal, 15 % Switzerland,
4 % others (Europe), 1 % others
Other operating income mainly includes recovery of
guarantees, marketing and transport costs. The realized
gain on sale of real estate accounts for € 5,741 K.
16. Operating Charges
The gross margin (Turnover less Cost of Sales on
Turnover) can be summarized as follows:
2008 2009
Alcadis (4-wheels) 16,87 % 16,32 %
Moteo (2-wheels) 23,27 % 23,94 %
EOL (Office Furniture) 40,81 % 41,72 %
At Alcadis, the decrease in margin on cars was under
pressure, but this was partly compensated by a
stable margin on parts and accessories.
Despite the change in product mix from motorcycles
to mopeds and scooters, Moteo could improve the
gross margin. This was partly a result of the favorable
exchange rates of the JPY and USD.
The overall climate of the office furniture market
and the actions of the main competitors forced EOL
to consider price reductions. However, in order to
safeguard the gross margin, the management of
EOL decided to maintain the pricing policy. Furthermore
an increased in-house production of finished
goods resulted in an overall improvement of
the gross margin.
Taking into consideration the changes in segment
footprint the shift from business with high margins
(EOL) to the 4-wheels activities, the total gross margin
of the group decreased from 21,05 % in 2008 to
20,15 % in 2009.
The decreased activities, combined with savings in
marketing expenses allowed for changes in services
and other goods from € 143,963 K in 2008 to
€ 123,448 K.
The marketing expenses account for a large portion
(€ 30,723 K) of the services.
The reduction in headcount are reflected in the decreased
payroll expenses. The major headcount
reductions are situated at the Swiss retail activities
and at EOL.
Employees 2008 2009
Number of employees (average) 1,861 1,662
Remuneration,
social security and pensions 99,345 87,856
The depreciation of the consolidation differences
(other than attributed to assets) amounting to
€ 2,912 K consisted of:
• EOL
• Ré’Action
• Koch
• Garage De Kort
• Etn. Gonthier
• Hergon
€ 1,226 K
€ 897 K
€ 596 K
€ 137 K
€ 5 K
€ 51 K
As a result total operating profit amounted to
€ 17,079 K compared to € 40,184 K in 2007. The
operational profit margin in 2009 decreased to
1.7 % of turnover versus 3,3 % in 2008.
17. Financial Income
Lower short term interest rates and an intensified
cash management to allow a reduction in outstanding
debts, resulted in a decrease of income from
current assets.
The income related to the investment portfolio of
Cedimar account for the biggest part of the Other
Financial Income.
18. Financial Charges
The interest charges decreased by more than 55 %
as a result of the strong reduction in outstanding
financial debt and the low interest rates on the
financial markets.
These low interest charges lead to an improvement
of the group’s interest coverage ratio (Operating
Result on Net Interest Result) from 3,82 in 2008 to
4,18 in 2009. EURIBOR 1 MONTH
5,5
5,0
4,5
4,0
3,5
3,0
2,5
2,0
1,5
1,0
0,5
0,0
03/98
12/9809/9906/00
03/01
12/0109/0206/0303/0412/0409/0506/0603/0712/0709/0806/09
19. Extraordinary Income
and Extraordinary Charges
The most important extraordinary results for the
year 2009 are:
• Realized gain
on disposal of fixed assets: € 529 K
• Restructuring charges EOL: € - 620 K
• Restructuring charges Moteo: € - 621 K
• Other: € - 333 K
14 15