Message from the President
|G4-1|
Dear reader,
This report contains the highlights of the 16/17 crop year, a period when we achieved important milestones and consistent results. Nevertheless, it's important to acknowledge the challenges we also had to address.
We were put to the test in several fronts, from a decline in the domestic market resulting from a reduction in fuel consumption, to changes in the pricing policy adopted by Petrobras, which led to new dynamics for the industry, while having to deal with the high volatility of prices in the international sugar market.
By relying on a high-performance team that was able to manage this new scenario with skill and competency, turning complexity into opportunity to expand competitive differentiators, we maximized our efforts to maintain the excellence of our operations and minimize the consequences of external factors, such as political and economic instability, climate effects, and volatility of commodities.
The positive results we achieved reflect the high performance of our people and the continuing focus on results. We invested in infrastructure and logistics to increase operational capacity and leverage efficiency, and expanded our network to over 6,000 service stations under the Shell brand, as presented in this report, supporting our dealers through differentiation of products and services, such as Shell V-Power, Shell Evolux, and the Select convenience stores.
We also investigated technology and innovation, since they are essential to our strategy. We launched Shell Box - an app that facilitates the lives of consumers by allowing payment and participation in promotions at service stations - and improved our control of logistics operations. In the agricultural-industrial sector, we evolved in precision technology and image processing, and centralized control of all of our industrial and agricultural operations at Pentágono.
We achieved record market share in the fuel industry, thanks to the continued expansion of the network, to the marketing we developed, to the quality of our brand, and to the quality of the operation of our thousands of dealers. We established a new financial record in cash generation and had very positive indicators on a survey of the most desirable companies to work for, helping to strengthen our image and adding value to our corporate brand.123
We remain committed to strengthening our organizational culture, turning the purpose that guides us, "Energy that mobilizes," into a guiding objective to transform our lives, mobilize people to do more and better, and encourage new beliefs and behavior to allow for continuous evolution.
Safety is a nonnegotiable value for us, and today we reap the benefits of all internally promoted best practices. Our indicators point to strong evolution, albeit one fatality was recorded in the period. Systems, processes, and training are duly in place, and what is keeping us from our "Zero Accident" goal is intensifying awareness towards behavior. To this end, we introduced Momento de Segurança (Safety Moment), where all professionals deal with the topic on a daily basis at the production units and in the offices, and we promoted Dia da Segurança (Safety Day), in order to mobilize direct employees and contractors around the topic. Through these initiatives, we improved our safety messageand continuously strive to reduce risks, and consequently, accidents and fatalities.
In the social aspect, we rely on a major partner, Raízen Foundation, which provides support in the relationship between our production units and distribution terminals with neighboring communities. We invest in a series of programs that offer, to children especially, complementary education related to art, music, and technology. Not only with communities, but also with our partners, our relationship is characterized by trust, transparency, and objectiveness in terms of what we expect, providing constant feedback and encouraging better results. We developed work to support safety, sustainability, and financial management, and we have performance, efficiency, and productivity metrics in place for our partners, as well as for our team. It is an extremely professional relationship, focused on teamwork so that we may present superior performance and generate shared value.
We continue to certify our operations in the Bonsucro standard, and for our sugarcane suppliers, we address the sustainability challenge through the "ELO Program," which addresses best environmental and social practices for sugarcane cultivation. Therefore, we want to help our partners to also become sustainable, since their products are our raw material, the basis of our chain. In this sense, we invest in the sustainability of our carrier partners and we guide them regarding our strict environmental, safety, human rights, and labor criteria.
As protagonists in our area of operations, we always seek to attract and develop talented people, to have discipline in cost management, and to leverage productivity, anticipating scenarios and indicating medium and long-term plans, with ethics and integrity as nonnegotiable values. We interact with our clients and partners, in order to always be together and well-positioned in our journey, moving forward with increased strength.
Enjoy your reading!
Luis Henrique Guimarães
President
1Source: Sindicom. Available at https://www.sindicom.com.br/sind_estatisticas/download/Participacao_Mercado_2016.pdf
2Source: Raízen Financial Statements. Available at https://ri.raizen.com.br/
3Source: Linkedin Survey Available at https://pt.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedin-top-companies-2017-onde-os-brasileiros-sonham-guilherme-odri