Our integrated approach

ANNUAL INTEGRATED REPORT

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

FINANCIAL REPORTING AND CHANGES TO THE SIZE AND STRUCTURE OF THE GROUP

The annual financial statements are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the interpretations adopted by the International Accounting Standards Board, the SAICA Financial Reporting Guides as issued by the Accounting Practices Committee and the Financial Reporting Pronouncements as issued by the Financial Reporting Standards Council and in terms of the requirements of the Companies Act of South Africa and the JSE Listings Requirements.

The unbundling of the foodservice operations resulted in an accounting profit of R76,3 billion, which was distributed to shareholders by way of a dividend in specie on May 30 2016. The foodservices business has been treated as a discontinued operation and comparatives have been re-presented accordingly. The commentary in this annual integrated report will focus on Bidvest’s continuing operations.

During the 2016 financial year, Bidvest restructured into seven divisions: Automotive, Commercial Products, Electrical, Financial Services, Freight, Office and Print and Services. Due to the unbundling of the foodservice business and the restructuring of the industrial divisions and in order to provide information that is more representative of the Group in its current form, comparatives have been re-presented without foodservices in the consolidated income statement, cash flow statement and segmental analysis, and have been annotated as such.

WHO THE REPORT IS FOR

The annual integrated report is targeted primarily at our providers of capital, our shareholders. However, we endeavour to have sufficient information available for all our stakeholders to enable them to have an informed opinion of our businesses.

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 what its value proposition is. If you feel that there is important information that you would like to see included in future reports, please contact us on info@bidvest.co.za 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 report and in their opinion, it addresses all material issues and presents fairly the integrated performance of the organisation and its social and environmental 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 28 2016.

REPORT STRUCTURE

It is often difficult to aggregate consistent sustainability information to report a Group number as definitions for certain indicators vary across industries. Our Group risk committee assists the board in identifying 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.

ASSURANCE

The financial statements have been independently opined upon by Deloitte. Assurance over the risk management process, internal financial control and overall operational internal control has been independently obtained from Internal Audit using an integrated risk-based approach. Our carbon footprint is small relative to the wide spectrum of different industries in which Bidvest is involved. However, top contributors in certain key sustainability indicators – training spend, CSI spend, water electricity, petrol and diesel usage – are identified and measured which continues to create awareness across our businesses and increases innovative thinking. The key sustainability indicators were robustly assured and reported through the management structures in place within the Bidvest business environment.

Lindsay Ralphs
Chief executive

Lorato Phalatse
Non-executive chairman

Peter Meijer
Chief financial officer