It gives me great pleasure to present to you the 2023 CA&S Group Integrated Report (IR), which provides a comprehensive account of the company’s activities and performance over the reporting period. 2023 has truly been a good year for the company and its stakeholders. Highlights included the company’s Namibian and South African footprint expansion through strategic acquisitions, CA&S Group crossing the R5 billion market capitalisation for the first time, and the company being awarded the prestigious Master Distributor of the Year award by a leading FMCG brand owner.
Integral to the success achieved has been our astute management teams and dedicated employees who, under the leadership of Duncan Lewis (CEO) and Frans Reichert (CFO), have diligently executed on strategy to deliver sustainable value for CA&S Group stakeholders. I applaud your unwavering commitment.
Operating environment and point of view
In the global and local economic landscape, 2023 brought forth various headwinds, including, inter alia, ongoing geopolitical tension, prolonged delays at key ports, rising raw material costs and interest rates, and persistent electricity supply constraints in key markets.
Notwithstanding these challenges, our highly skilled and experienced teams in various jurisdictions were able to navigate the complexities and uncertainties (“Challenges”) to deliver a robust performance. Central to the team’s ability to manage such Challenges were (i) the CA&S Group’s strategic approach, which demonstrated its effectiveness, resilience and flexibility during the challenging period; and (ii) its positive (glass half full) outlook. The team embodies legendary businessman, Jannie Mouton’s outlook that a negative person seldom starts or creates anything worthwhile. The company prides itself on its entrepreneurial spirit, looking through the cloud of negativity to find and capitalise on opportunities.
Financial performance
The CA&S Group is at its core a results-driven business. For this reason, I am particularly pleased to report that the company continued to deliver strong financial results in the past year. Revenue and operating profit grew by 19.4% and 40.7%, whilst HEPS and EPS increased by 25.3% and 59.5%, respectively.
The positive growth alluded to above enabled the company to increase its dividend by 27.4% to 19.56 cents per share and also contributed to the CA&S Group share price growth of 55.79% in 2023.
ESG Integration
As a large, dual-listed business operating in multiple jurisdictions across the African continent, we acknowledge and understand the role that we need to play as a responsible corporate citizen. The CA&S Group took active steps to (i) formalise and align our ESG strategy with our overarching corporate goals; and (ii) prioritise the integration of ESG into the company’s governance versight and risk structures.
During the reporting period, we, inter alia, contributed R5.4 million towards various Corporate Social Investment (CSI) projects, focusing on key areas such as education, food security, poverty alleviation and income generation. Our CSI efforts underscore our recognition of the pivotal role communities play in granting us a social licence to operate and supporting the long-term prospects of the business.
Outlook
Looking ahead, we remain optimistic about the future of the CA&S Group and the value that it can continue to add to stakeholders across the African continent. Our resilient business model, characterised by excellent execution, prudent cash management and capital allocation coupled with stable, sustainable cash generation, positions the company to traverse challenges and seize pportunities to grow the business. In this context, the company remains focussed on achieving our goal of reaching circa R20 billion in revenue by 2026.
Appreciation
Running a successful, multi-national business is truly a team sport. I am therefore immensely grateful to our board members, the CEO and CFO, management teams, staff and partners who have all contributed in one form or another to our performance as well as to assist the company to position itself for future growth.
Our proudly African company looks forward to meeting and exceeding our stakeholders’ varied needs and expectations in 2024!
JA Holtzhausen
Chairperson