Annual Report and Accounts 2020 Strategic Report
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Annual Report and Accounts 2020 Strategic report INSIDE THIS REPORT Strategic report Governance Accounts Introduction 1 Introduction from the Chairman 36 Consolidated income statement 84 Chairman’s review 2 The Board 38 Consolidated statement Our business today 4 Board leadership and Company purpose 40 of comprehensive income 85 Our marketplace 5 Nomination Committee report 46 Consolidated balance sheet 86 Technology driving innovation 6 Audit Committee report 48 Consolidated statement Business model 8 of changes in equity 87 Chief Executive statement 10 Directors’ remuneration report Consolidated statement of cash flows 88 How we measure performance 14 Committee Chair Introduction 52 Notes to the consolidated financial statements 89 Investing in our people 16 At a glance 56 Wincanton plc Company balance sheet 126 Corporate responsibility report 18 Report on remuneration 58 Wincanton plc Company statement Financial review 24 Directors’ Remuneration Policy 65 of changes in equity 127 Risk report 32 Directors’ report Notes to the Wincanton plc Company financial statements 128 Directors’ report 72 Group five year record 130 Statement of Directors’ responsibilities 74 Shareholder information 131 Independent auditor’s report Board of Directors and advisers 132 Independent auditor’s report 76 Strategic reportStrategic INTRODUCTION Delivering sustainable supply chain Governance value, expertise and solutions to some of the world’s most admired brands, Wincanton is the largest report remuneration Directors’ British third party logistics (3PL) company in the UK. Our success is born out of our strengths in working Directors’ report closely with our customers, collaborating across the industry and tailoring our services to today’s needs while anticipating those of tomorrow. Our drive to continually evolve better ways of working means we put innovation and technology at the forefront of all we do. report auditor’s Independent And by building a high-performance culture where our people are valued, respected and enabled to deliver excellence, we have become experts across a diverse range of sectors, from grocery to consumer goods, construction to energy, putting safety at the heart of Accounts our business. This report outlines our progress over the last 12 months. Facts and figures Revenue Colleagues Drivers £1.2bn 19,100 5,500 Locations Warehousing space Vehicles responsible for 200+ 14 m sqft 3,500 FOR MORE INFORMATION ON OUR BUSINESS TODAY SEE PAGE 4 Wincanton plc Annual Report and Accounts 2020 1 Strategic report CHAIRMAN’S REVIEW We made solid progress in the year. COVID-19 creates major short term uncertainties but looking beyond the current crisis, we see excellent opportunities for Wincanton. Dr. Martin Read CBE Chairman Financial highlights Results I am pleased to report a year of solid progress 1 Revenue Underlying earnings per share for Wincanton with revenue up 5.2% and underlying profit before tax up 7.3%. £1,201.2m 35.8p Reassuringly, the Group has delivered revenue growth on the back of some significant new contracts. Net debt at the year-end fell 47.7% +5.2% +6.9% from £19.3m to £10.1m despite increased dividend payments of £13.8m and a £17.8m top up to our pension scheme. 1 Underlying profit before tax Basic earnings per share As we closed the financial year, our balance sheet was strong and our cash flow healthy. £52.9m 31.1p In normal circumstances, this would provide strong reassurance to our various stakeholders, enable us to deliver progressive dividends +7.3% -9.9% and put us in a good position to develop our business. However, these are far from normal circumstances. COVID-19 has impacted our Underlying profit before tax margin1 Net debt1 business significantly and there remains considerable uncertainty regarding the levels of demand and business interruption 4.4% £10.1m for the remainder of the year. +10bps - 47.7% Strong operational performance The commitment of our people to doing things well has again been evident in high Profit before tax Net assets/(liabilities) levels of customer satisfaction and the Group’s impressive health and safety record. It has also been manifest in the way our workforce has £43.8m £14.7m responded to the effects of COVID-19 and the needs of our customers. This very much reflects the Group’s culture which we seek to -9.9% +£81.8m nurture and maintain. For example, we have recently launched a new purpose statement and Code of Conduct, ‘the Wincanton Way’, for our employees. James Wroath provides more details in his Chief Executive Statement. During the year, we secured some valuable contract wins and retained many long standing contracts. Encouragingly, we experienced no significant contract losses. We are grateful to our customers for trusting us to be a key part of their supply chain and to our suppliers for supporting us in meeting our customer needs. 1 The Directors present the results of the business on an underlying basis as they believe this better represents We have continued our investment in the performance of the business. In order to aid comparison with the prior year, these numbers have also innovation and in fast-moving technologies to been presented on an IAS 17 basis. See page 31 for further information on these alternative performance measures (APMs) including definitions and a reconciliation of APMs to statutory measures. The definition of support our business. Our OneVAST warehouse, non-underlying items can be found in Note 4 to the consolidated financial statements on page 98. one of the outputs from our W2 Labs initiative, is 2 Wincanton plc Annual Report and Accounts 2020 Strategic reportStrategic now fully operational. It brings buyers and sellers We completed an external Board evaluation in Strategic development Governance of space together online by offering a cloud- the year. Overall, it was very encouraging but, Wincanton is a much respected brand with based, virtual warehouse. Also of note is our as always, we have identified some actions to extensive national coverage and strong work with MiX Telematics, our Winsight in-cab be followed through. The Board evaluation is operational performance. Our new management technology, our wearable ‘ProGlove’ device and discussed further on page 45. team has been focusing on how we can use ‘Soter Spine’ which enables our operatives to lift Our people these strengths to grow our business profitably, items with reduced risk of injury. Further details shifting it towards more value added activities to are provided on page 7 of this report. My thanks, as always, go to our 19,100 colleagues who provide the consistently high levels of deliver benefits to our customers and to improve Further tangible progress was made during the report remuneration Directors’ service required to help us win and retain our margins. This is discussed further in the Chief year on reducing our carbon emissions which business. Our people are the cornerstone of our Executive Statement. We had anticipated that has also helped us to reduce our operating costs. the first benefits of our new initiatives would impressive and still improving health and safety You can read about how we are minimising record which is an important differentiator for become evident during the course of the new our impact on the environment and focusing the Wincanton brand. I am particularly grateful financial year but are mindful that the current on sustainable business on pages 21 and 23 to them for the way they have responded COVID-19 crisis is likely to slow our progress. of this report. to the effects of COVID-19 which has been As well as a focus on market facing development Board changes exceptional in all parts of our business. and innovation, we had also planned to Directors’ report The financial year saw the appointment of our Stewart Oades, our Senior Independent direct significant investment at improving new Chief Executive, James Wroath. James was Director, has been appointed as our employee the efficiency of our operational and support Chief Operating Officer of North America for representative Non-executive Director and has functions this coming year. Again, COVID-19 LSG Sky Chefs from 2015 until he joined us visited a number of our sites to hold consultations is likely to necessitate an extension to our in September 2019. He has deep experience with our workforce. This exercise has provided original timetable. in logistics and the broader business services valuable feedback for the Board. Further details Despite the short term challenges, we continue environment and is focused on exploiting are given in the Board Leadership section of to remain alert to opportunities in our industry. Wincanton’s respected market position, its this report. In this context, I should mention the work we put auditor’s report auditor’s Independent extensive national coverage and its strong We have a strong focus on diversity and into evaluating the potential acquisition of Eddie operational base to deliver profitable growth. inclusion within our people strategy. We are Stobart Logistics plc (‘Eddie Stobart’) last autumn. James has now played himself into his new role also working to narrow our gender pay gap. We saw this as a major opportunity to increase our scale and the breadth of our offerings and and made some significant structural changes Our current remuneration policy has been in to deliver major cost synergies. We therefore to take the business forward. This is discussed place for three years and we are presenting a devoted considerable time and effort to further in his Chief Executive Statement. new policy for approval at our Annual General reviewing this business. However, we concluded Other Board changes were the previously Meeting. The changes reflect current regulations that the underlying profitability of Eddie Stobart announced arrival of Debbie Lentz who joined and are in line with the policies applying to our and the ongoing liquidity concerns would Accounts the Board on 1 June 2019 and the appointment wider workforce.