CAC I
CHAIRMAN'S INTRODUCTION : ITEM 'Al, B-30 A.M., MONDAY, 11TH MAY
Welcome delegates. especially Michael Butt. David Slobom and
Peter Rombaut, attending for the first time.
Thank Sir Jasper Hollom for use of William Kent House.
It is almost exactly two years since CAC IX at Phoenix and although
the changes since then are less dramatic than the acquisitions of Eagle
Star and Allied Dunbar which occurred between C&C Vill and CAC IX there has
nevertheless been continuing progress on the strategies which were agreed
by the B.A.T Industries Board in 1982.
Significant events have been the acquisition of Genstar by Imasca, the
move into Pulp manufacture in Portugal and Spain by Wiggins Teape and the
divestments of Gimbel$, Kohls, Frederick & Nelson, Pegulan/Huppw and
Grovewood.
There has also been gratifying progress in our continuing businesses
and after & year in 1985 when our reported results were affected adversely
by the weakening of the dollar, 1986 again showed an encouraging level of
profits growth.
Encouraging though these results are, however. we need to put our
performance into context with that of the market as a whole and, judged by
that criterion, there is no cause for complacency.
Tomorrow morning I will be reviewing our performance over the past
five years to provide a-backdrop to identifying the challenges of the
future.
What this will show is that, eliminating the favourable affect* of
currency, we have not done much better than the market average. Thus, we
are going to need to strive hard to produce the above average performance
that we seek to achieve, &specially as the signs are that our business
environment is likely to be rather less favourable than has been the case
in the immediate post.
The programs for our meeting follows the same pattern as we had at
Phoenix using the first day as an opportunity to exchange notes on the
current status and sodium term plans of each of our businesses.
Tomorrow morning we will start by looking &bead on a Group basis
au-sris in& the financial forecasts for the next five years and the
financial issues before going on to review our strategies and objectives.
The rest of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning will be taken up
with discussions of the key issues for each of our major Industrial
activities and in these we will be looking to identify and assess the major
development options open to us in Paper and Pulp, Retailing and Financial
Services before going on to discuss how we can best optimise the profits
and cash flow from our Tobacco activities.
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BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 21 April 1999