Chief Executive Officer, Bossard Holding
Bossard Generalversammlung 2021
About Daniel Bossard
At the 2021 general meeting, Daniel Bossard stated that the Bossard Group had not made any pandemic-related layoffs and that the workforce remained stable. He attributed this to the company's financial base, its business model, and a belief in long-term success with experienced employees. Bossard also noted that the company aimed for a return to pre-crisis revenue levels of approximately 870 million Swiss francs. Bossard described the company's 2020 performance as "very good," citing its ability to maintain delivery capacity, the development of a new "Strategy 200" focused on a global sales engine, and increased customer productivity. He pointed to factors such as a 40% market share in Switzerland and 30% in Denmark, and expressed confidence for 2021 based on positive economic indicators, the new strategy, and growth potential in industries like rail, electromobility, robotics, and medical technology.
Transcript (6 segments)
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Thomas Muck0:03
Dear shareholders, I am pleased about your visit to our homepage and your interest in the business performance of Bossard. 2020 was a very good year, and the operating result is only one aspect. Daniel will later address the results in his speech. 'Very good work' refers to three points: the post-COVID organization was and is able to deliver and supply customers around the globe at any time. This constant delivery capability is not a given in these months, at times when governments close countries and halt production. Globally active customers like Roche Diagnostics, Hamilton, or Stadler Rail appreciate this supply security. Secondly, from Bern to Shanghai, from Dresden to Boston, from San Francisco, the new Bossard Strategy 200 was developed together, true to the motto 'Together We Create'. At the center of this new strategy is our Global Sales Engine. We are getting this sales engine up to speed. And thirdly, we were able to keep our customers' productivity high, even increase it. We have continuously supplied our industrial customers, our consulting services have increased markedly, and our logistics services are in high demand due to the transparency of inventory and order situations. Very important to me in these months is a robust balance sheet with an equity ratio of 50 percent, as always, adjusted for goodwill and other positions. This solid balance sheet and the ability to generate cash flow even in difficult times are both the foundation and the opportunity to emerge stronger from this pandemic. In line with our strategy, we will accelerate profitable growth in the coming years. The dividend of CHF 4.40 is based on two considerations: it is higher than usual because you had to forgo part of the dividend last year, but at the same time, the Board of Directors, with this proposal, takes into account the still existing uncertainty in the real economy. Dear shareholders, your investment in Bossard is based on trust in the people. For this trust, I thank you on behalf of all our colleagues around the globe. A special thanks goes to Meriva Pauli and Toni Lauber, who are leaving our board today after many years of service. Thanks to their contributions, we have been able to become more innovative and better in recent years. In their place, the Board proposes the election of Petra Reimann and Marcel Keller to the Group Board of Directors. Bossard has started the new year successfully. We are pleased to present encouraging quarterly figures today. The start has been successful, and that makes me confident for the whole year. I thank you for your interest and, with these remarks, hand over to Daniel Bossard.
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Daniel Bossard4:25
Thank you, Thomas. Dear shareholders, after a year 2020 marked by the pandemic, I am grateful that we can report a business result that suggests a crisis-resistant model, knowing full well that many industries have fought and are still fighting for survival. The Bossard Group did not make any layoffs last year due to the pandemic; the headcount remained stable. This is because we have a strong financial base, a business model that allows us to operate profitably even in crises, and because we believe in a long-term future that we can only shape successfully with our experienced employees. I would like to give you a brief review of the 2020 financial year, explain our new Strategy 200, a new long-term strategic direction that will guide us until our 200th anniversary in 2031, and finally provide an outlook for 2021. For the review: in fiscal 2020, we recorded a sales decline of 7.2% (minus 3.3% excluding the impact of the strong Swiss franc), with an increase in demand in all markets in the fourth quarter. With quickly implemented cost-cutting measures, Bossard achieved an EBIT of CHF 86 million (-0.7%), with a respectable double-digit EBIT margin of 10.6%. The Bossard Group thus demonstrated its resilience, and this for five main reasons: First, digitalization experienced a boost last year. With our digital and fully automated logistics solutions, which we have been offering for 25 years, we were in line with the demand trend and were able to deliver. Second, our broad industrial diversification helped us balance demand risks. We were and are not dependent on individual customers or industries. Third, long-term customer loyalty and retention with our key customers, due to our close strategic customer relationships, helped us retain customers and even expand customer relationships. Fourth, geographical diversification allowed us to balance regional demand differences. Our supply chain also benefited from the geographical split. Our previous strategy of sourcing key products from two to three suppliers in different regions has proven successful. Fifth, in addition to ensuring smooth day-to-day operations, our long tradition of innovation and 'Change to Business' helped us offer modern and flexible customer solutions and remain competitive. These five factors contributed to our resilience and also form the foundation of our future strategy.
And with that, I come to Strategy 200. The business model of the past is the foundation for our success so far. The sales and profit development of recent decades speak for themselves, and of course we wanted to hold on to the long-term success factors when developing the new strategy. We asked ourselves where we stand as a group on a corporate development curve in 2020. After 190 years, one might assume we should be mature and have a high global market share. Today we have a high 40% market share in Switzerland and with 30% market share in Denmark we are market leader. In the other markets, there is still significant growth potential, with market shares between 1% and 3%. As already mentioned, Bossard has a business model that has proven itself over the decades, and like a startup that has found a product and developed a successful sales model, the next step is growth or scaling. So we decided to focus on our strengths. We want to steepen the growth curve vector in all our key markets, grow accelerated, profitably, and sustainably in the coming years until 2031, and thus gain relevant market shares. We have formulated this intention in the following growth aspiration: 'Together we bring productivity and sustainability cooperation to the world.' We want to achieve this. To do so, we have defined seven strategic initiatives, which I would like to briefly explain to you. As you probably know, we have made 17 acquisitions in the last nine years. With 'One Bossard,' we want to unite the group by creating an organization in which the strengths of the individual Bossard business units and functional areas come into play optimally, and at the same time we act globally as one group, operate efficiently, and across borders. Under the cultural motto 'Together We Create,' we have launched various activities to make our organization fit for the future. We have revised our core values and introduced global guiding principles or behavioral guidelines that help us make communication in the organization more efficient, break down silos, distribute knowledge better, and move decisions to the front line. We want to create an inspiring environment to remain attractive for existing employees and, especially with a view to the future, to attract new talent. We want to drive sales growth through a globally harmonized sales process. In doing so, we rely particularly on digital tools in customer acquisition, building high-quality customer leads, and structures that allow us to accelerate customer acquisition. The Global Sales Engine is our global growth engine.
Whatever we do, we want to align it with customer benefit. With the Customer Centricity initiative, we aim for a stronger customer orientation of the entire organization. Everyone in the Bossard Group must regularly move in the customer environment to recognize current trends. The Operations Engine is our backbone. With an optimized supply chain, we want to bring our products and services to our customers efficiently and in high quality. This also includes the development of our new cloud-based digital platform, which is intended to replace our current ERP system in the coming years. We continue our innovation activities. Through a newly created internally and externally linked innovation community, we want to respond even faster to customer needs and offer solutions that allow us to maintain and expand our leading innovative market position. Growth must not come at the expense of sustainability. This has always been the case and remains so. We already place great value on environmental standards and a supplier base that meets sustainability criteria both socially and in terms of environmental emissions. We support our customers in their activities to reduce product weight and energy costs. Furthermore, our intelligent and efficient solutions in C-parts logistics significantly contribute to reducing transport activities and thus CO2 emissions on the customer side. With Strategy 200, we are pursuing a sustainable strategy in which, alongside sales and profit growth, achieving sustainability goals is central. Thus, sustainability is part of the strategy and not a detached social or green adventure.
With Strategy 200, we aim for accelerated, profitable, and sustainable growth over the next ten years, based on our proven business model, to achieve relevant market shares in our key markets, and this with seven strategic initiatives.
And with that, I venture an outlook for the current year. The industrial economic barometer, the purchasing managers' indices, are all above 50. Raw material prices have risen and delivery times have become longer. Freight rates are also experiencing a historic high. These signs point to positive economic development and expansion. The large market potential, our new Strategy 200, our solid financial base which also allows further acquisitions, as well as the potential in growth industries such as rail vehicle construction, electromobility, robotics, and medical technology, make us confident for the year 2021. We aim for sales growth back to pre-crisis levels in the order of CHF 870 million. As Thomas Muck already mentioned, we have started with a great first quarter. We will be happy to explain further details about Strategy 200, the initiatives, and our growth plans at our Capital Market Day on October 27, 2021, and of course at our next Annual General Meeting in 2022. Many thanks, dear shareholders, for your loyalty, and I look forward to hopefully being able to welcome you in person again next year. Thank you very much.