12th May 2016 07:00
PREMIER FARNELL PLC - Annual Report 2016 and Notice of Annual General meetingPREMIER FARNELL PLC - Annual Report 2016 and Notice of Annual General meeting
PR Newswire
London, May 11
Premier Farnell plc(“Premier Farnell” or "the Company")
Annual Report 2016andNotice of Annual General Meeting
Premier Farnell plc announces that the Annual General Meeting ("AGM") of the Company will be held on 14 June 2016 at 11:00 am at the offices of Allen & Overy LLP, One Bishops Square, London, E1 6AD.
Premier Farnell has today posted (or otherwise made available) to its shareholders the following documents:
Annual Report for the year ending 31 January 2016 Notice of Annual General Meeting; and Form of Proxy for the Annual General Meeting (for those shareholders entitled to attend and vote)In accordance with Listing Rule 9.6.1 copies of these documents have been submitted to the National Storage Mechanism and will be available for viewing shortly at http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/NSM.
The Company’s Annual Report and the Notice of Annual General Meeting are also available on the Company website at www.premierfarnell.com/investors/AGM
In accordance with Disclosure and Transparency Rule 6.3.5 (2) (b) additional information is set out in the appendices to this announcement.
Enquiries:Premier Farnell plc
Steven Webb Company Secretary +44 (0)870 129 8608Paul Sharma Investor Relations +44 (0) 20 7851 4142
AppendicesThe following information is extracted from the Annual Report and Accounts. Page references are to pages in the Annual Report and Accounts.
Appendix A: Directors’ responsibility statement pursuant to DTR 4 (page 57)Each of the Directors, as listed on pages 38 to 39, confirms that, to the best of his or her knowledge:
a. the consolidated financial statements in this report, which have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) as adopted by the EU, give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities, financial position and profit of the Group taken as a whole; and
b. the Strategic Report contained in this Annual Report includes a fair review of the development and performance of the business and the position of the Group together with a description of the principal risks and uncertainties it faces on pages 16 to 17.
Appendix B: Risks and uncertainties (pages 16 to 17)The principal risks and uncertainties facing the Group are summarised below. The disclosure of risks and uncertainties in the table below reflects the approach of the Company to also look for the opportunities presented when addressing significant risks.
The principal risks are formally reviewed, twice per year by the Board. Updates in terms of emerging risks or significant actions undertaken are addressed as and when required at Board meetings. The principal risks are determined through an evaluation of likelihood of occurrence and potential impact, with a full review also undertaken by the Senior Executive Team (SET).
Management also review specific strategic, operational, and financial and compliance risks in regular focused forums during the year; SET meetings; quarterly functional reviews; major programmes and project reviews; and at other key executive management meetings. Further details on our risk management and internal control procedures are included on page 53.
| Risks and uncertainties | Mitigating actions | Opportunities |
| Competitive pressures increase | We have rationalised our element14 organisation by globalising our operating model and leveraging the efficiencies of the web. Further work is being undertaken to drive efficiencies and save cost following an operational review undertaken with the support of Alvarez & Marsal. | Our major drive has been to build a global online platform using IBM’s WebSphere which was completed in calendar Q2 2015/16, which has provided greater system stability at a global scale. We have undertaken a set of online upgrades that enhance our search capabilities and will be simplifying our pricing, particularly with respect to freight services. |
| Insufficient progress with improving performance in the Americas | We have a fully integrated multichannel sales and marketing plan that is aligned with the wider element14 strategy and the evolution of our global proposition. This plan is aimed at addressing the needs of our customers, including a focus on specific segmentation by type of customers and vertical industries. | By enhancing and better targeting our offering, and developing the customer proposition by leveraging our global resources, we can significantly improve operating performance in the Americas. We have also invested in incremental inventory to support the Industrial Electronics segment in North America in 2015. |
| Failure to leverage our technology expertise and partnerships with key suppliers. | In 2015 we launched phase two of the element14 Design Centre, where customers can buy licences for embedded systems. Since 2014 we have invested in capability through our acquisitions of Embest and AVID, for designing and manufacturing development kits for component manufacturers. | Leveraging our technology expertise offers significant opportunities in meeting the needs of our component manufacturer customers but also in our core engineering customer base. |
| Long term evolution of the electronic component distribution model | Software and services continues to play an increasing role. This increases value while diversifying our business model away from pure distribution. The Group takes actions to reduce the impact of its business on the environment through carbon emissions and by encouraging recycling, especially of packaging. The regional warehouse model reduces impact of carbon emissions compared to alternatives. | Environmental and technology trends are sources of electronics innovation which underpin sales to our product development customers. Through ongoing focus on reducing the environmental impact of doing business, we are introducing more efficient processes and can offer further complementary services to our customers. |
| Delivering our new business model | Cultural change to support our global ways of working has been underpinned by the definition and roll out of Leadership Standards. Focus on priority improvement programmes and cost efficiency defined through the recent operational review of the element14 businesses. | Our new global structure will facilitate better sharing of expertise and resources across the business globally. It will allow us to enhance the service we provide to meet the needs of customers and suppliers across regional boundaries. |
| Recruitment, development or retention of talented people | We actively measure the retention of talent within our organisation which provides us with the ability to track trends and act with the appropriate and necessary actions. Reward schemes are continuously evaluated to drive and reward performance and ensure retention of key talent. | We seek to actively engage employees by focusing on customer relationships, leadership, social responsibility and communications. The new global structure will provide our people with better ways of working and development opportunities. |
| Data and content quality inhibit effectiveness of our ecommerce strategy | A dedicated data function has been established to ensure compliance with internal processes and external regulations. A data strategy and governance framework has been developed to support the information requirements of our strategic programmes. | In order to provide engineers with a high level of technical support, element14 has around 260,000 unique product data sheets, which are downloaded more than a half million times per week. |
| Significant failure or inefficiencies in our systems and infrastructure | Business continuity plans are kept under review for all our key locations. There is ongoing review of our IT infrastructure and we conduct regular testing of our systems. | We continually improve workflows and operational efficiencies and provide increased capacity and investment in capability. |
| Cyber security failure leading to revenue or reputational loss. | We have implemented sophisticated cyber security tools to block external threats and attacks including enhanced, integrated security in the new global web platform. A computer incident response team established alongside enhanced internal training and review processes. | Providing a safe and secure online experience to customers is potentially differentiating compared to smaller, less established competitors. |
| Legal and regulatory risks | We have exposure to a number of countries and their respective legal compliance requirements are addressed through a variety of controls. | The increase in environmental legislation for electronics, such as the introduction of REACH, allows us to provide real value to our customers through our legislative expertise. |
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