Premier Farnell plc
("Premier Farnell" or "the Company")
Annual Report 2016
and
Notice of Annual General Meeting
Premier Farnell plc announces that the Annual General Meeting ("AGM") of the
Company will be held on 14 June 2016 at 11:00 am at the offices of Allen &
Overy LLP, One Bishops Square, London, E1 6AD.
Premier Farnell has today posted (or otherwise made available) to its
shareholders the following documents:
* Annual Report for the year ending 31 January 2016
* Notice of Annual General Meeting; and
* Form of Proxy for the Annual General Meeting (for those shareholders
entitled to attend and vote)
In accordance with Listing Rule 9.6.1 copies of these documents have been
submitted to the National Storage Mechanism and will be available for viewing
shortly at http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/NSM.
The Company's Annual Report and the Notice of Annual General Meeting are also
available on the Company website at www.premierfarnell.com/investors/AGM
In accordance with Disclosure and Transparency Rule 6.3.5 (2) (b) additional
information is set out in the appendices to this announcement.
Enquiries:
Premier Farnell plc
Steven Webb Company Secretary +44 (0)870 129 8608
Paul Sharma Investor Relations +44 (0) 20 7851
4142
Appendices
The following information is extracted from the Annual Report and Accounts.
Page references are to pages in the Annual Report and Accounts.
Appendix A: Directors' responsibility statement pursuant to DTR 4 (page 57)
Each of the Directors, as listed on pages 38 to 39, confirms that, to the best
of his or her knowledge:
a. the consolidated financial statements in this report, which have been
prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs)
as adopted by the EU, give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities,
financial position and profit of the Group taken as a whole; and
b. the Strategic Report contained in this Annual Report includes a fair review
of the development and performance of the business and the position of the
Group together with a description of the principal risks and uncertainties it
faces on pages 16 to 17.
Appendix B: Risks and uncertainties (pages 16 to 17)
The principal risks and uncertainties facing the Group are summarised below.
The disclosure of risks and uncertainties in the table below reflects the
approach of the Company to also look for the opportunities presented when
addressing significant risks.
The principal risks are formally reviewed, twice per year by the Board. Updates
in terms of emerging risks or significant actions undertaken are addressed as
and when required at Board meetings. The principal risks are determined through
an evaluation of likelihood of occurrence and potential impact, with a full
review also undertaken by the Senior Executive Team (SET).
Management also review specific strategic, operational, and financial and
compliance risks in regular focused forums during the year; SET meetings;
quarterly functional reviews; major programmes and project reviews; and at
other key executive management meetings. Further details on our risk management
and internal control procedures are included on page 53.
Risks and Mitigating actions Opportunities
uncertainties
Competitive We have rationalised our Our major drive has been to
pressures element14 organisation by build a global online platform
increase globalising our operating model using IBM's WebSphere which was
and leveraging the efficiencies completed in calendar Q2 2015/
of the web. Further work is being 16, which has provided greater
undertaken to drive efficiencies system stability at a global
and save cost following an scale.
operational review undertaken
with the support of Alvarez & We have undertaken a set of
Marsal. online upgrades that enhance our
search capabilities and will be
simplifying our pricing,
particularly with respect to
freight services.
Insufficient We have a fully integrated By enhancing and better
progress with multichannel sales and marketing targeting our offering, and
improving plan that is aligned with the developing the customer
performance in wider element14 strategy and the proposition by leveraging our
the Americas evolution of our global global resources, we can
proposition. This plan is aimed significantly improve operating
at addressing the needs of our performance in the Americas.
customers, including a focus on We have also invested in
specific segmentation by type of incremental inventory to support
customers and vertical the Industrial Electronics
industries. segment in North America in
2015.
Failure to In 2015 we launched phase two of Leveraging our technology
leverage our the element14 Design Centre, expertise offers significant
technology where customers can buy licences opportunities in meeting the
expertise and for embedded systems. Since 2014 needs of our component
partnerships with we have invested in capability manufacturer customers but also
key suppliers. through our acquisitions of in our core engineering customer
Embest and AVID, for designing base.
and manufacturing development
kits for component manufacturers.
Long term Software and services continues Environmental and technology
evolution of to play an increasing role. This trends are sources of
the electronic increases value while electronics innovation which
component diversifying our business model underpin sales to our product
distribution away from pure distribution. development customers.
model Through ongoing focus on
The Group takes actions to reduce reducing the environmental
the impact of its business on the impact of doing business, we are
environment through carbon introducing more efficient
emissions and by encouraging processes and can offer further
recycling, especially of complementary services to our
packaging. The regional warehouse customers.
model reduces impact of carbon
emissions compared to
alternatives.
Delivering our Cultural change to support our Our new global structure will
new business global ways of working has been facilitate better sharing of
model underpinned by the definition and expertise and resources across
roll out of Leadership Standards. the business globally. It will
allow us to enhance the service
Focus on priority improvement we provide to meet the needs of
programmes and cost efficiency customers and suppliers across
defined through the recent regional boundaries.
operational review of the
element14 businesses.
Recruitment, We actively measure the retention We seek to actively engage
development or of talent within our organisation employees by focusing on
retention of which provides us with the customer relationships,
talented people ability to track trends and act leadership, social
with the appropriate and responsibility and
necessary actions. communications.
Reward schemes are continuously The new global structure will
evaluated to drive and reward provide our people with better
performance and ensure retention ways of working and development
of key talent. opportunities.
Data and content A dedicated data function has In order to provide engineers
quality inhibit been established to ensure with a high level of technical
effectiveness of compliance with internal support, element14 has around
our ecommerce processes and external 260,000 unique product data
strategy regulations. A data strategy and sheets, which are downloaded
governance framework has been more than a half million times
developed to support the per week.
information requirements of our
strategic programmes.
Significant Business continuity plans are We continually improve workflows
failure or kept under review for all our key and operational efficiencies and
inefficiencies in locations. There is ongoing provide increased capacity and
our systems and review of our IT infrastructure investment in capability.
infrastructure and we conduct regular testing of
our systems.
Cyber security We have implemented sophisticated Providing a safe and secure
failure leading cyber security tools to block online experience to customers
to revenue or external threats and attacks is potentially differentiating
reputational including enhanced, integrated compared to smaller, less
loss. security in the new global web established competitors.
platform.
A computer incident response team
established alongside enhanced
internal training and review
processes.
Legal and We have exposure to a number of The increase in environmental
regulatory risks countries and their respective legislation for electronics,
legal compliance requirements are such as the introduction of
addressed through a variety of REACH, allows us to provide real
controls. value to our customers through
our legislative expertise.