Annual & Sustainability Report 2019
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ANNUAL & SUSTAINABILITY 2019 REPORT SUSTAINABILITY & ANNUAL SCANDIC ANNUAL & SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2019 CONTENTS The leading Nordic Insert Employee data 70 hotel company GRI index 73 This is Scandic 1 Auditor’s Report on the The year in summary 2 Statutory Sustainability Report 76 CEO statement 3 Administration Report 78 Creating stakeholder value 6 Risks & risk management 84 High profitability over time 8 Corporate governance 88 Scandic’s position Board of Directors 96 in the value chain 16 Executive Committee 98 Strategic focus areas 19 Scandic’s markets 26 Financial reports 100 Growing and improved Notes 108 hotel portfolio 30 Adoption 134 Attractive brands & offering 36 Auditor’s Report 136 Optimized distribution 40 The Scandic share 140 Effective operational model 42 Definitions 142 Sustainable business 44 Shareholder information 143 Engaged & motivated team members 46 Sustainability strategy 51 Responsible partner in society 63 Climate impact 64 Scandic is a Swedish company subject to Swedish laws. All values are expressed in Swedish kronor. Figures in parentheses refer to 2018 unless otherwise specified. Data on markets and competition in Sweden is based on Scandic’s own assessments unless a specific source is indicated. These assessments are based on the best and latest available facts from published sources. The annual accounts and consolidated accounts of the company are included on pages 78–134 of this document. The statutory sustainability report can be found on pages 1–19 and 44–75 in this document. THE LEADING NORDIC HOTEL COMPANY With 53,000 hotel rooms in operation at 268 hotels, Scandic is the leading hotel company in the Nordic region. In 2019, net sales totaled 19 SEK billion. NET SALES ADJUSTED EBITDA & EBITDA MARGIN REVPAR MSEK MSEK % SEK 20,000 2,400 12 800 16,000 2,000 10 600 1,600 8 12,000 1,200 6 400 8,000 800 4 200 4,000 400 2 0 0 0 0 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Net sales, MSEK Adjusted Adjusted EBITDA margin, % RevPAR, SEK EBITDA, MSEK Target adjusted EBITDA margin, 11% THIS IS SCANDIC THE LEADING HOTEL COMPANY IN THE NORDIC COUNTRIES Scandic has the largest and widest hotel network in the Nordic market. This creates a unique offering and enables high efficiency. Most of Scandic’s hotels are operated 53,000 under a fully-owned brand that is clearly the best known in the Nordic hotel market. Scandic has hotels in about 130 locations, with 58,637 rooms in operation and HOTEL ROOMS IN OPERATION under development at 283 hotels. A LOYAL CUSTOMER BASE Scandic has driven development in the Nordic hospitality industry. Its innovative thinking is appreciated by guests and the company enjoys a high share of returning customers. About 35 percent of Scandic’s bookings are related to Scandic Friends, the leading loyalty program 268 130 in the Nordic market. HOTELS LOCATIONS IN OPERATION STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS Most hotels in the Nordics are operated via long-term leasing agree- ments. Scandic focuses on revenue-based leasing agreements. This PIONEER IN SUSTAINABILITY contributes to financial stability and also links the interests of Scandic For many years, Scandic has been a driving force in the hotel industry within sustain- and its property owners, enabling long-term positive development of ability, both when it comes to environmental and social issues. Scandic’s sustainability the hotels. Thanks to Scandic’s market position and business model, it initiatives contribute to reducing the use of resources, which is increasingly important is often the preferred partner for many property owners when it comes to guests and helps lower the company’s costs. to new hotel projects. HOTELS 15 IN THE PIPELINE 15% HIGH-QUALITY HOTEL PORTFOLIO At year-end, Scandic had a high-quality pipeline including 15 new hotels at MARKET SHARE attractive destinations that will open between 2020 and 2024. Scandic also works IN THE NORDIC COUNTRIES constantly to optimize its existing hotel portfolio through extensions, renovations and reconfigurations. GRI: 102-2 SCANDIC ANNUAL & SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2019 • 1 THE YEAR IN SUMMARY Scandic’s underlying operating profit continued to improve, reaching the highest level ever in 2019. Among other things, the earnings trend was driven by more rooms in operation and strong development in the Finnish market. Demand increased in Scandic’s markets, which contributed to a slight increase in both average room rates and occupancy during the year. In 2019, Scandic opened seven hotels with lease agreements and signed agreements for a number of new hotels. Scandic has an attractive pipeline of hotels that provides a good foundation for continued profitable growth in the coming years. IMPORTANT EVENTS IN 2019 SCANDIC HASSELBACKEN SOLD EXPANDING HOTEL PORTFOLIO STRONG FOCUS On February 7, Scandic signed an agreement In 2019, Scandic opened seven hotels under lease agreements, ON PORTFOLIO DEVELOPMENT to sell Scandic Hasselbacken, generating a contributing 1,559 rooms in total. At year-end, Scandic’s pipeline In November, a new unit was established profit of approximately 180 MSEK. corresponded to 11 percent of the existing portfolio. in the Executive Committee with overall responsibility for portfolio management in order to strengthen the focus on developing the hotel portfolio. JENS MATHIESEN NEW PRESIDENT & CEO On January 17, 2019, Jens Mathiesen was appointed new President & CEO for Scandic. 2 • SCANDIC ANNUAL & SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2019 STRONG FOCUS ON PROFITABILITY & EFFICIENCY Scandic’s sales rose by just over 5 percent in 2019 at the same time as both adjusted EBITDA and cash flow improved. Jens, how would you summarize your first year strong in Finland, in part thanks to the Finnish EU Presidency as CEO of Scandic? during the second half of the year – 2019 was an eventful year. We saw continued positive – In our two largest markets, Sweden and Norway, RevPAR demand in all markets. Sales rose by 5.2 percent and we rose marginally during the year. The Swedish market was improved both adjusted EBITDA and cash flow during the relatively stable, demonstrating a balance between the year. This is mainly due to strong performance in Finland, number of available and sold rooms. In Norway, the market and it was gratifying to see a clear margin improvement was impacted by a substantial increase in hotel capacity in at the former Restel hotels. Oslo during the first half of 2019, but thankfully, this was – During the year, we focused to a great extent on being fully offset by strong growth in demand during the year. clearer in our priorities to most effectively improve profit- – The market most affected by an increase in supply was ability and efficiency. Parallel to this, we worked to evaluate Copenhagen. Here, RevPAR went down in 2019 and it will Scandic’s long-term growth opportunities. probably continue to remain under pressure in 2020. In the – Although we are obviously satisfied with Scandic’s per- slightly longer perspective, we have positive expectations formance in 2019, our full focus right now is on dealing for Copenhagen. It’s a market with historically high occu- with the effects of the spread of the coronavirus. Travel pancy levels, which means that new hotels are likely to has virtually ceased and in principle, all events have been drive demand. Scandic is underrepresented in Copenhagen canceled. For this reason, it is clear that 2020 will be a very compared to other Nordic capitals and going forward, we challenging year for the hotel industry as a whole. intend to strengthen our presence and offering in the city by opening attractive new hotels. What happened in the hotel market during the year? – The demand for hotel experiences is growing in our What do you consider to be Scandic’s biggest markets. We estimate that the number of sold rooms in strengths? the Nordic countries has increased about 3 to 4 percent – Scandic has a strong, unique culture that is demonstrated per year since 2010, and growth in big cities has been by our team members and that is absolutely crucial for somewhat higher. This can be explained by generally high delivering great service to our guests. Our culture is some- economic activity in our markets combined with structural thing we should be extremely proud of and continue growth in tourism and greater numbers of international to nurture. visitors. It’s clear that the Nordic countries have become – We have a scalable business model with flexible leases increasingly attractive to international visitors. and well-functioning partnerships with property owners – Scandic’s average RevPAR increased by slightly more that we’ve developed over time. In recent years, we have than 2 percent during the year. RevPAR was particularly established a strong market position in the Nordic region. GRI: 102-14 SCANDIC ANNUAL & SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2019 • 3 Today, Scandic is the leading hotel which is why we’ve initiated a number of cant investments in renovations, we now our modes of operation and offerings. company in the Nordic region, giving us measures to further strengthen Scandic’s have a well-invested hotel network and During the year, a restaurant in one of our economies of scale in operations and profitability, cash flow and market position. we see opportunities to reduce the aver- Copenhagen hotels signed an outsourcing distribution that we intend to capitalize on. age investment per room in the future. agreement and I expect that we will see – We have carried out a review of our hotel In 2019, our renovation investments more agreements like this going forward. What is Scandic focusing on portfolio and during the year, we exited decreased both in relation to net sales right now? four smaller hotels in Finland that had – We’ve increased the pace of digitaliza- and in absolute terms.