Südzucker International Finance B. V. Südzucker AG ... - Xetra

PersonnelNumber of employees declines due to disposalsDespite the acquisition of Saint Louis Sucre, thedisposal of Schöller Holding, with its large number ofstaff, led to a sharp decline in the number ofemployees in the group. On average there were14,855 persons employed in the group in 2002/03, ofwhich 11,543 were employed in the sugar segment.Mainly as a result of acquisitions, the number ofpersons in the special products segment rose to 3,312.Employees by segment43 %Sugar EU35 %Sugar eastern Europe22 %Special productsTop-quality training and developmentThe Südzucker Group believes its future depends onthe quality of its employees and in training youngpeople. Once again in 2002/03, the work of ourhuman resources department was concentrated ontraining and development. This can be demonstratedby the high number of apprenticeships which, forexample, was 7 % at AGRANA in Austria and 10 %at Südzucker in Germany. Südzucker has apprenticesfor 11 different professions within the group, andtheir good exam results speak for the high level oftraining quality at Südzucker. The introduction ofEnglish as the common corporate language wasaccompanied by language training and refreshercourses which were eagerly taken up by the staff.Business English has been offered as a supplementaryqualification in the white-collar apprenticeships formany years. Group-wide trainee programs smooththe way for young, talented people to transfer fromapprenticeship to practice and attract qualified newstaff to the group. For the same reason, internshipsare offered at all the group’s divisions.The international deployment of employees as part oftheir career planning and development has increasedsince last year. We have thus been able to give highlyqualifiedmanagement trainees an experience ofintercultural life and convey to them an understandingof the Südzucker Group’s strategic direction.Safety at work could again be improved within thegroup. Parallel to the measures taken in the SüdzuckerGroup, the implementation of an interactive worksafety training program and many internal andexternal training sessions and preventative measureto once again reduce accident numbers were carriedout as part of the social dialog between the Europeansugar industry and employee representatives. Theintegration of health safety in safety at work hasproved to be successful.Many of the employees affected by the restructuringprogram in Germany were able to take up jobs atother locations. A number of older employees tookadvantage of the early retirement program.We should like to thank all our staff for their interestand hard work over the year. Our special thanks goto the employees of the Löbau works which closed atthe end of the 2002 sugar beet campaign. Furthermore,we extend out thanks to members of the workscouncils for their co-operation and fairness.Average number of employees during the year 2002/03 2001/02Sugar11,543 12,148Sugar EU 6,335 6,494Südzucker AG and Südzucker GmbH 2,946 3,040Raffinerie Tirlemontoise (Sugar) 849 930Saint Louis Sucre 1,673 1,616 1)AGRANA 903 908Sugar eastern Europe 5,208 5,654Special products segment3,312 2,886Total14,855 15,034 2)1) 2)12 months. Excluding Schöller Group.F-71