ANNUAL REPORT 2019/20 ANNUAL REPORT 2019/20 ANNUAL REPORT Strategy and Management Financial The company Governance value creation Board Report Statements INDEX ANNUAL REPORT THE COMPANY * MANAGEMENT BOARD REPORT * 2 Company profile 36 Composition of the Management Board 4 Our heritage 37 Report of the Management Board 7 Financial highlights 50 Corporate social responsibility 12 Interview with the Management Board 58 Risk management and control 15 Key figures 69 Management Board statement 16 Shareholder information Lucas Bols brands global presence 18 GOVERNANCE 70 Corporate governance * STRATEGY AND * VALUE CREATION 76 Composition of the Supervisory Board 21 Global brands 78 Report of the Supervisory Board 27 Regional brands 82 Remuneration report 30 Strategy FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 33 Creating value 88 Consolidated Financial Statements 2019/20 35 Stakeholder matrix 132 Company Financial Statements 2019/20 OTHER INFORMATION 137 Other information 140 Auditor’s report The paragraphs marked with a * are part of the report of the Management Board as defined in Title 9, Dutch Civil Code 2. 1 COMPANY PROFILE Lucas Bols is a leading global cocktail and spirits player with a strong position in the bartending community and a unique heritage dating back to 1575 in Amsterdam. Our portfolio includes Bols, the world’s oldest distilled spirits brand. Building on this heritage, we have mastered the art of distilling, mixing and blending, creating a portfolio of premium and super- premium global brands, together with strong regional brands. Lucas Bols is active in over 110 countries worldwide with the Bols brand as the number one liqueur range globally (outside the US). Lucas Bols is also the world’s largest player in the genever segment and its portfolio includes the number one passion fruit liqueur Passoã. Our flexible and asset-light business model enables us to focus fully on innovation and strategic marketing to build the Lucas Bols brands. At the Lucas Bols distillery we create new flavours and adapt old recipes, in line with the cocktail trends of today. The House of Bols Cocktail & Genever Experience and the Bols Bartending Academy play a leading role in the development of the cocktail market. 2 LUCAS BOLS ANNUAL REPORT 2019/20 Strategy and Management Financial The company Governance value creation Board Report Statements LUCAS BOLS MISSION We create great cocktail experiences around the world by taking our 445 years of history as inspiration for developing our brands, maintaining our innovation leadership and becoming the undisputed bartending authority. 3 OUR HERITAGE For 445 years we have been mastering the art of mixing and blending, creating beautiful flavours for our genevers and liqueurs. We invite you to open your senses and experience the past, present and future of Lucas Bols. th 1575 1664 1816 20 century The Bols family establish The Bols family start The widow of the last Acquisition of additional their distillery ‘t Lootsje producing genever which male Bols heir sells the regional brands, such as in Amsterdam and start plays an important role company on condition Dutch genevers, Pisang distilling liqueurs. The in the emergence of the that the Bols name be Ambon and Coebergh. grandson Lucas Bols cocktail culture in de US used in perpetuity on turns the distillery into an in the 19th century. all its products, thereby international company. ensuring its status as the world’s oldest distilled spirits brand. 4 LUCAS BOLS ANNUAL REPORT 2019/20 Strategy and Management Financial The company Governance value creation Board Report Statements CHAPTER BOLD CHAPTER LIGHT Introduction Body 2004-06 2007-08 2015 2016-19 2020 Return of the Lucas Opening of the Celebration of Lucas Bols adds Damrak, Lucas Bols’ Bols head office to House of Bols 440 years of Passoã, the Passion gin brand launches Amsterdam. Relaunch Cocktail & Genever Lucas Bols history fruit liqueur, a non-alcoholic of the Bols Liqueurs Experience and the and listing on and Nuvo, the alternative in the bottle, made by & Bols Bartending the Euronext sparkling liqueur, US and the for bartenders and Academy. Amsterdam stock to its global brands Netherlands with addition of new International exchange. portfolio. Damrak Virgin 0.0. bartender brands relaunch of Bols such as Galliano. Genever, based on the original recipe from 1820. 5 It is our objective to strengthen and grow our global brands in the international cocktail market while maintaining the competitiveness of our regional brands in regional and local markets. To accomplish this, we focus on the key strategic initiatives set out below. SHARING TASTES EXPERIENCE NEW FLAVOURS 6 LUCAS BOLS ANNUAL REPORT 2019/20 Strategy and Management Financial The company Governance value creation Board Report Statements FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS Revenue Gross margin (in € mln) (in % of revenue) 84.0 56.7 2018/19: 87.0 2018/19: 56.6 EBIT Operating free cash flow (in € mln) (in € mln) 17.7 15.7 2018/19: 19.6 2018/19: 11.8 Normalised net profit Dividend per share (in € mln) (in €) 11.3 0.35 2018/19: 12.8 2018/19: 0.60 7 SHARING MOMENTS EXPERIENCE THE UNUSUAL 8 LUCAS BOLS ANNUAL REPORT 2019/20 Strategy and Management Financial The company Governance value creation Board Report Statements BRAND HIGHLIGHTS 1575 445 Oldest distilled spirits years of craftsmanship & brand in the world cocktail history More than 25 brands Revenue split 2019/20 € 64.5 € 19.4 +110 million 77% million 2 Global brands Regional brands Sold in more than 110 countries around the world 9 MARKET POSITION SHARING CRAFTSMANSHIP EXPERIENCE QUALITY 10 LUCAS BOLS ANNUAL REPORT 2019/20 Strategy and Management Financial The company Governance value creation Board Report Statements MARKET POSITION LIQUEURS GENEVER #1 #1 World’s No.1 World’s No.1 liqueurs range * genever * outside the US DAMRAK PASSOA 1st Virgin #1 World’s first Gin brand The No.1 Passion Fruit to launch a Virgin 0.0 liqueur Passoã 11 INTERVIEW WITH THE MANAGEMENT BOARD WHAT WERE THE MOST REMARKABLE HOW WOULD YOU SUMMARISE DEVELOPMENTS THIS PAST YEAR? THE YEAR? “Looking back – and ahead – we cannot overlook China,” “Apart from the impact of COVID-19, it was a year with said Lucas Bols CEO Huub van Doorne. “For us, China is positive developments but also a year with challenges,” one of the countries where we saw the greatest growth last Huub van Doorne continued. “I mentioned the positive year. An important driver of this is the growing middle class trend in China but there were also positive developments that is resulting in a clear increase in the number of modern in Eastern Europe and the US. Looking at our brands, Bols restaurants and bars. We saw a significant rise in volumes Liqueurs was among the strong performers. One of the in China and we were also able to raise our prices. This is challenges we faced was mitigating the negative impact a positive development, although it is worth noting that of new legislation in France. Furthermore, the entire China’s contribution to overall results is still relatively small.” retail market in Western Europe was challenging and the coronavirus has put pressure on bars and restaurants since “But then January came around and we were all February. The effect of these developments, combined confronted with the coronavirus,” CFO Joost de Vries with the high comparable basis in the second half of the added. “Of course it was limited to China initially but year in the US, especially around Nuvo, and in the UK, then the whole world was impacted by the virus and related to Brexit, is that we were unable to grow our its devastating impact. For our business we saw the global brands in 2019/20.” first impact on depletions as of February but with the lockdown measures taken in countries around the globe and the uncertainty as to the duration of those measures and how the outbreak will evolve it is very difficult to predict what the impact for 2020/21 will be, but there will be a severe impact.” “The year 2019/20 was a year with positive developments, but also a year with challenges “ HUUB VAN DOORNE 12 LUCAS BOLS ANNUAL REPORT 2019/20 Strategy and Management Financial The company Governance value creation Board Report Statements “We are pleased with the strong improvement in our operating cash flows “ JOOST DE VRIES COULD YOU EXPAND MORE ON THESE “Internally we also accomplished a major task with CHALLENGES? the implementation of a new ERP system completed on 1 April 2020,” Joost de Vries continued. “Now we “A new law in France, called EGalim, introduced measures are even better equipped to deal with the complexity that restrict promotional activities in the retail sector, also and dynamics associated with being an international impacting the Food & Beverages retail sector,” Huub van organisation. We have more insight, better accessibility Doorne explained. “In the short term this had quite a and flexibility for the future because the system operates negative impact on our revenue in France, although it in the cloud.” is expected to have a positive effect on margins in the long run.” “We are also pleased with the strong improvement in our operating cash flows and stable development of the gross “In addition our Avandis joint venture required attention margin,” Joost de Vries noted. “The entire Lucas Bols last year. A large investment programme is underway to team worked hard to achieve this.” make the plant more efficient and enable it to meet the latest safety and environmental demands,” Joost de Vries said, adding: “but as we all know, costs precede benefits WHAT DEVELOPMENTS ARE YOU and this is visible in our temporarily higher production SEEING AT THE LUCAS BOLS BRANDS? costs.” “A great deal of attention was focused on the preparations for the relaunch of the Bols Liqueurs, which WHAT ARE YOU THE PROUDEST OF? started in May 2020 and will be rolled out in the 2020/21 financial year on a market by market basis,” Huub van “I have to mention China again,” said Huub van Doorne.