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2018 / Annual Report 2018 / ANNUAL REPORT //www.facebook.com/lazurde //twitter.com/lazurde //www.instagram.com/lazurde //www.pinterest.com/lazurde //www.youtube.com/user/lazurdejewelry CORPORATE F I N A N C I A L 1 OVERVIEW 3 PERFORMANCE 04 Chairman’s and CEO’s Statement 54 Key financial highlights 08 About L’azurde 58 Finance and borrowing 10 Key milestones 66 Dividend Policy 12 Profile of the Board 70 Risk factors 18 Profile of Executive Management STRATEGIC CORPORATE 2 BUSINESS REVIEW 4 GOVERNANCE 24 L’azudre’s Principal Business Activities 78 Board formation 26 Business description 92 Policies and code of Governance 30 Business Model 106 Communication with shareholders 44 Ownership structure 112 Audit committee report CONSOLIDATED 5 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 118 Consolidated Financial Statements 1 1 CORPORATE OVERVIEW 04. Chairman’s and CEO’s Statement 08. About L’azurde 10. Key milestones 12. Profile of the Board 18. Profile of Executive Management 2 L’azurde Annual Report 2018 3 — CORPORATE OVERVIEW — Principal among these was our acquisition of the KSA These include revamping our product design to offer fresh franchise of the Tous international jewelry brand. This and contemporary collections; forming collaberations CHAIRMAN’S AND establishes us with a strong position in the fastest growing with designers in France and Italy, and the likes of Al- sector of the jewelry industry, the accessible jewelry Anoud Badr, the designer of the award-winning Lady CEO’S STATEMENT segment. The acquisition diversifies our opportunities Fozaza fashion brand. We have also restructured our sales for growth and will add significantly to our profits in 2019 force and strengthened our merchandizing support to our and beyond. wholesale customers. We expect that these measures will strengthen our position as the market leader and lead to Full year operating revenues in 2018 were SAR 406.4 increased earnings in 2019. million, an increase of 14.4% over 2017, driven largely by our businesses in Egypt. Gross profit increased by 12.2% Our retail operations in KSA grew by 1.7% despite to SAR 244.1 million on the back of the revenue growth. challenging trading conditions. Excluding Tous’ 26 locations, our retail network in KSA now comprises Operating expenses were SAR 174.2 million, up from SAR 32 points of sale made up of 10 L’azurde monobrand 142.2 million in 2017. This increase was driven mainly by stores, 14 Kenaz kiosks, two Amazing Jewelry franchise an increase in variable costs associated with the growth stores and six airport Duty Free locations. Our focus of the wholesale business in Egypt; the investment in five currently is to improve the profitability of this network new retail stores in Egypt (which will begin to pay back in by rationalizing our footprint, revamping the operations 2019); additional staff costs in KSA including the impact at our flagship stores and accelerating the profitable of increased expat levies; the inclusion of operating liquidation of slow-moving stock. expenses from Tous from the date of acquisition; and our decision to increase our marketing spend to reinforce Our wholesale business in Egypt grew by over 50 % during our leading brand. the year as the economy and consumer spending power continued to recover from the currency devaluation of 2016. Net income amounted to SAR 17.7 million versus SAR 31.5 We expect this performance to continue as we introduce Mohammed Ebrahim Juma Al Shroogi Selim Chidiac million in 2017. This decline was largely due to higher exciting new collections and refresh our brand marketing. Chairman Chief Executive Officer expenses. These included a one-time cost in completing the Tous acquisition. Excluding this, net income was SAR The retail business in Egypt also performed very strongly, 23.1 million, a decrease of 27% from the prior year. posting revenue growth of 150%. During the year we added five new stores, bringing the total in country to 2018 was a challenging year for L’azurde in our home BUSINESS PERFORMANCE AND KEY 12. These new stores should reach mature profitability in ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2018 the course of 2019. market of Saudi Arabia, as it was for many other companies. In 2018, we had mixed performance across our main Our businesses in Egypt, however, continued to perform businesses, and we also took major steps to improve The acquisition of the Tous franchise in KSA is a future earnings and to implement our strategy. transformative step for our company. In addition to strongly and it was a year of several strong achievements adding a growing and profitable business, it provides Our traditional wholesale business in KSA suffered a decline us with access to the skills and experience of a global which will position us well for the future. of 11%. This reflected soft consumer demand, experienced leader in the accessible jewelry segment, the fastest broadly in the market, exacerbated by the introduction of growing sector in our industry. The acquisition closed VAT and the impact of full restructuring of the work force and late in this year, so we anticipate an important boost to associated training cost to meet regulations requirements our net income from the Tous business in full year 2019. related jewlery sector feminization. We have implemented a full set of measures to address this challenge. 4 L’azurde Annual Report 2018 5 — CORPORATE OVERVIEW — CHAIRMAN’S AND CEO’S STATEMENT During the year, we added to our existing partnerships • Improve the profitability of the L’azurde retail business new collaborations with Egyptian actress and style icon in KSA through footprint rationalization, revamping Nelly Karim and “Queen of the Stage,” Myriam Fares. operations at flagship stores, intensifying staff training and reducing slow selling stock. We are also focused on improving the productivity of our operations, both through process improvements and the • Grow our profitable wholesale and retail businesses use of leading-edge technology such as 3D printing. In in Egypt. 2018, our new production facility in Egypt came fully on line. This will produce new lines for the local market as well • Rollout our new Hadeyyati line across the region. as take advantage of low Egyptian manufacturing costs to • Continue to drive productivity improvements. serve export markets. We are also placing major emphasis on leveraging synergies between our KSA and Egyptian • And continue to seek acquisition opportunities which, operations in the areas of product design and development. like Tous, will add to our profitability and strategic position. Overall, even though we are disappointed with our net income performance, we believe that 2018 was a year of In summary, we believe that L’azurde is powerfully substantial achievement and the laying of foundations positioned for the future. We are the leading jewelry for improved performance in 2019 and beyond. manufacturer and distributor in the region and have a growing retail presence. We have one of the OUTLOOK FOR 2019 best recognized brands in the Arab world. We have In 2019, we expect only modest improvement in demonstrated our ability to make strategic acquisitions consumer demand in KSA and continued strengthening and believe that we have further, similar opportunities. of our market in Egypt. Our focus is on rigorous execution Our strategy is clear and is backed by well-developed of the initiatives outlined above, including: execution programmes. • Revitalize our KSA wholesale business through the In closing, we would like to thank our employees, our launch of new premium collections and celebrity customers, our suppliers and our shareholders for their promotions, and revamped sales and merchandizing confidence, trust and commitment to the long-term management. success of the L’azurde Group. • Integrate and grow the Tous franchise in KSA. During 2018, we launched our new “Hadeyyati” line during Eid AL Adha. This new collection features fresh Mohammed Ebrahim Juma Al Shroogi and trendy designs to match the tastes of the modern Chairman woman. It is our first fixed-price gold collection and is initially being sold through our own brand retail stores supported by dedicated branding and marketing. We are now in the process of extending distribution through other leading retailers in the region and e-commerce platforms. Consumer response has been encouraging. Selim Chidiac In 2018, we made progress in revitalizing our export CEO markets which had suffered in recent years due to the political instability in several countries. We have new initiatives in Iraq, Oman, Jordan and in the USA, focused on the Arab-American segment. L’azurde has one of the strongest brands in the MENA region. In 2018, we took significant steps to refresh our brand through both traditional and digital channels. Our celebrity brand ambassadors are an important component of this programme and have been very successful in helping us engage with existing and new customers. 6 L’azurde Annual Report 2018 7 — CORPORATE OVERVIEW — ABOUT GOVERNANCE STRATEGY L’AZURDE We are committed to maintaining the highest L’azurde strives to become the leading designer, manufacturer, standards of governance as a substantial distributor and retailer of gold, diamond and affordable fashion tool for protecting shareholders' equity and jewelry in the MENA region. To achieve this vision, L’azurde has achieving the highest possible value for their adopted the following business strategy: long-term investments, enhancing oversight mechanisms and supervision by activating • Revitalize our KSA wholesale business through the launch of new the role of the Board of Directors and its premium collections, celebrity promotions, digitization of our route to market and revamped sales and merchandizing management. Founded in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1992, on L’azurde and few top global franchise brands. The first committees and ensuring the implementation L’azurde Company for Jewelry (“L’azurde”) is the largest step was the acquisition in 2018 of the KSA franchisee for • Strengthen the L’azurde wholesale presence across all GCC markets designer, manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer of gold the global affordable jewelry brand TOUS.
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