Our annual integrated report

Bidvest continues to progress on the journey outlined by King III while ensuring increased integration of reported financial, social, governance and environmental information.

It is important to remember that in the decentralised Bidvest environment we only include information from a Group perspective and our four divisions in the printed version of the annual integrated report. For additional information and operational reviews for our underlying divisions, please refer to the online version of the annual integrated report, available on www.bidvest.com.

QUICK LINK: Bidvest website

In line with the guidelines from the Integrated Reporting Committee of South Africa we have used the Six Capitals as a platform to inform this review.

By using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework and integrated reporting guidelines and while striving for concise and accurate reporting, only information relevant to the specific Bidvest environment is reported. The GRI (G3/G4) indicator index can be found on the website, www.bidvest.com. Where information requested is not material to Bidvest as a Group, this has been indicated. Where information is collated from a Group perspective but not reported, this information is available on request.

Annual financial statements

The annual financial statements are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the Companies Act of South Africa and the JSE Listings Requirements.

Who the report is for

The annual integrated report is targeted primarily at our providers of capital, our shareholders, however we endeavor to have sufficient information available for all our stakeholders to be able to have an informed opinion of our businesses.

How to read this report

The annual integrated report for the year ended June 30 2014 covers information from all the Group’s divisions and where additional information is available or where there are any exclusions it is clearly indicated. We continue to stress that this report should be read together with the information available on the Bidvest website at www.bidvest.com for a comprehensive view of the Group.

Additional information

The annual integrated report is an overview for anyone interested in Bidvest either as a current or potential investor, or any one of our other stakeholders to obtain an overall perspective of the Group, how it is structured, how it is managed and its value proposition.

If you feel that there is important information that you would like to see included in future reports, please contact us on info@bidvest.com as we value your comments and suggestions.

Board responsibility

It is the board’s responsibility to ensure the integrity of the annual integrated report. The board has accordingly applied its mind to the annual integrated report and in the opinion of the board, this report addresses all material issues and presents fairly the integrated performance of the organisation and its impacts.

The annual integrated report has been prepared in line with best practice pursuant to the recommendations of the King III Code (principle 9.1). The board authorised the annual integrated report for release on October 24 2014.

How the report content is shaped

It often is difficult to aggregate consistent information to report a Group number as definitions for certain sustainability indicators vary across geographies and industries. As an example, the information for lost-time injury frequency rates, is collated from all our businesses globally, the definitions of what constitutes a lost-time injury frequency rate varies vastly, from insect bites in Mauritius to an accident at a home in Australia.

Our Group risk committee assists the board in recognising all material risks to which the Group is exposed and ensures that the requisite risk management culture, policies and systems are implemented and functioning effectively.

Our stakeholders have an important role to play in assisting with shaping our reported content. However, because Bidvest’s structure is decentralised, stakeholder engagement by necessity happens at a Group, divisional and Company level. Businesses engage with stakeholders important to their operations and which may be significantly impacted by their business activities and this informs our reporting. This engagement process also helps identify important commercial and sustainability issues and leads to workable solutions which are often industry specific.   Stakeholder table Moving away from the annual integrated report structure of previous years, we have included our future-based commentary at the beginning of our operational reviews. This, we believe, is how we want to report; what we intend doing, followed by what we have done in the past financial year which has created the platform to achieve our goals. Assurance The financial statements have been independently opined upon by Deloitte, who also performs a limited assurance exercise on certain sustainability indicators. During the 2014 reporting period, limited assurance was provided on certain sustainability indicators. The limited assurance provided to the Group covered between 30% and 50% of the reported sustainability indicators. It is important to note that the businesses acquired as a result of the Mvelaserve acquisition reported sustainability information for three quarters of the reporting year. We believe that the information reported is robustly assured and in the Bidvest business environment, which covers such a wide spectrum of different industries and geographies, this approach has assisted the businesses in setting realistic targets for the 2015 reporting period. Identifying and measuring the top contributors in certain key sustainability indicators training spend, CSI spend, water, electricity, petrol and diesel usage has heightened awareness across our businesses while increasing innovative thinking regarding new potential business opportunities in dealing with these issues.   QUICK LINK: This symbol denotes further reading and information available online     People-related information     Performance-related information     Product and service-related information     Planet-related information What you can find online   QUICK LINK: Operational reviews   QUICK LINK: Limited assurance – sustainability indicators   QUICK LINK: Comparative sustainability data   Lorato Phalatse Non-executive chairman Brian Joffe Group chief executive David Cleasby Group financial director