Geveko’s Swedish Annual Report 2011 released
Geveko’s Swedish Annual Report for 2011 is today published on www.geveko.se. The printed version of the annual report will be distributed to shareholders by post to shareholders on Aparil 3rd. The English version will be published and distributed mid April. Geveko has this year chosen only to print the statutory part of the Annual Report. Additional informationa has been published on www.geveko.se under the name Annual Review.
In the CEO review Mr Stefan Tilk notes that 2011 was a year with lots of strategic as well as financial challenges.
“Keeping our sights on profitability we have continued our projects during the year to successively carry out further measures to improve efficiency and co-ordination between the units in the Group.
In common with most other companies in contract road marking, Geveko has been suffering intensely for many years from fierce competition, shortages of key raw materials and consequently from rising raw material prices, a lack of investment in road building and road maintenance in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as cuts in spending on the roads in Great Britain. As far as Geveko is concerned this has successively required more and more changes in the operational structure. Unfortunately there are no signs of an improvement in the market situation on the markets in Central and Eastern Europe. The state of the contracting units in these countries has therefore gone from bad to worse. In December, therefore, a decision was made to divest those businesses that had been incurring heavy losses for many years. The decision covers the subsidiaries in Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Great Britain and the Czech Republic. The sale of the British contracting companies was finalised on 2 February 2012. By winding up loss-making activities we expect to reduce the capital requirement and contribute to a long-term improvement in profitability.
We will continue with our efforts to improve our operative structure, giving priority to marketing, product development and customer relations in order to create long-term added value. We will now strengthen, improve and focus on material sales and the contracting business in the Nordic countries. Given the strategic direction we have adopted, and the goal of consolidating our position of market leadership in road marking in Europe, I am optimistic about our performance in 2012 and onwards even though the path to higher profitability will still be edged with numerous challenges.”
The Annual Report is available on www.geveko.se. The Annual Review which includes CEO review, the business activities during the year as well as the Corporate Governance report is as well available on www.geveko.se.
Göteborg, Sweden April 2, 2012
AB GEVEKO (plc)
This information is such that Geveko must disclose in accordance with the Securities Markets Act. The information was submitted for publication on April 2, 2012 at 10.00 am.
AB GEVEKO (plc) Reg. no.: 556024-6844
Box 2137, 403 13 Göteborg, Sweden, Phone +46 31 172945, info@geveko.se www.geveko.se
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