Annual report 2021/22: a brief overview
View a brief overview of the Annual Report for the 2021/22 financial year and download the parts that interest you most.
Word from the Chairman
Like the previous one, the 2021/22 financial year was a challenging period, with the worldwide pandemic impacting our business in various ways. In this uncertain context, we also had to cope with the consequences of the July 2021 flood and the conflict in Ukraine. Given these trying circumstances, we take pride in having shown sufficient flexibility and creativity to continue to function properly. Despite raw material shortages, disrupted production chains and logistical obstacles, we continued to fulfil our social role, with food supplies never really compromised.
In a complex and challenging context, we were still able to close the financial year in a satisfactory way. Our Colruyt Lowest Prices, OKay and Spar formulas were able to consolidate their combined market share in Belgium. The divergent performance of our diversified brand portfolio resulted in a 1,2% increase in group sales to just over 10 billion euros. The net result closed significantly lower at 2,9% of sales.
Despite these challenges, Colruyt Group continued to invest heavily in the future. We invested 488 million euro and continued to expand the Colruyt Group ecosystem with several acquisitions, including Newpharma, Foodbag, Roelandt Group, JIMS, and Culinoa. That way, we strengthen our ambitions in the field of, among other things, e-commerce, vertical integration, health, and sustainability. We also took additional initiatives in the field of sustainable entrepreneurship and continued to invest heavily in the production and distribution of renewable energy. For example, through our participation in the energy holding Virya Energy, we are pioneering in the industrial production of green hydrogen and join in building large-scale wind parks in Belgium and abroad.
In yet another improbable fiscal year, we achieved a great deal as a group, supported by the craftsmanship and entrepreneurship that we cherish with 33.000 co-workers. In the coming years as well, the investments in both people and a sustainable infrastructure will allow us to be ready to serve millions of customers, every day over and over again.
Jef Colruyt
Chairman of the Board of Directors of Colruyt Group
Word from the Chairman – Continuity – Who are we? – Our vision on sustainability – Management report – Key figures
Who are we?
Colruyt Group is a family business that has grown over three generations into a retail group with almost 33,000 employees and a diverse portfolio of food and non-food formats, in Belgium, Luxembourg and France. Although retail still accounts for more than four fifths of our revenue, we are also active in wholesale, foodservice and production of renewable energy. It’s typical of Colruyt Group that we continue to do many things ourselves. We possess a wealth of experience and expertise in areas such as technology, IT and communication, as well as production and packaging of meat, coffee, cheese and wine.
Shared values, complementary brands and sustainability
Each in their own, authentic way, our complementary brands express the ‘simplicity in retail’ that we represent as a group. In this way, each brand helps achieve our common mission. Each brand also embodies the same group values, a familiar foundation for ourselves, for our partners and customers. So everyone knows what we stand for and this creates trust.
As a value-driven company, we want to make a positive difference with everything we do. Sustainability therefore remains the common thread running through everything we undertake. We also always start with a positive view of people and invest in our employees. After all, as the people grow, our company will grow.
Word from the Chairman – Continuity – Who are we? – Our vision on sustainability – Management report – Key figures
Activities
We divide our operational activities into retail, wholesale, foodservice, other activities and group support activities. We generate the majority of our revenue in Belgium, but we also have commercial activities in France and Luxembourg, and corporate services in India.
Retail
In the financial year 2021/22, the turnover of the retail trade activity decreased with 1.7% to 8,165 million Euro.
Retail trade represents 81.2% of the total group turnover and includes our stores and web shops in own management. Colruyt Lowest Prices, Collect&Go, OKay, Bio-Planet, Cru, Colruyt Prix Qualité, Dreamland, Dreambaby, Bike Republic, the fitness chain JIMS and the fashion retail chains ZEB, PointCarré and The Fashion Store. Retail trade also includes the export activities of Colex and our participations in Newpharma, MyComfort24, Robinetto, Foodbag, Scallog, and Daltix.
Wholesale and foodservice
In the financial year 2021/22, the turnover of the wholesale and food service segment decreased with 0.9% to 1,065 million Euro. Combined, these activities are good for 10.6% of the group turnover.
Retail Partners Colruyt Group groups all wholesale activities in Belgium: the deliveries to Spar, Alvo, Mini Market stores and to smaller independent storekeepers. In France, Codifrance delivers to the affiliated stores Coccinelle, Coccimarket and Panier Sympa, and to other independent storekeepers. Food service exists of the activities of Solucious and Culinoa in Belgium.
Other activities
In the financial year 2021/22, the turnover of the other activities increased with 49.7% to 819 million Euro or 8.2% of the total turnover.
This segment exists mainly of the turnover of the DATS 24 filling stations in Belgium and of Symeta Hybrid (print & document management solutions). Our participation in Virya Energy (green energy production) is also included in this segment.
Group support activities
This concerns the production departments of Colruyt Group Fine Food and our other supporting services: People & Organisation, Operate & Improve, Learning & Development, IT, Technics, Real Estate, Corporate Marketing, Marketing Communications Services, Retail Services Centre, and Customer Services. In this chapter, we also present our Collibri Foundation.
Retail trade – Wholesale – Foodservice – Other activities – Group support activities
Corporate governance
This chapter contains information about the governance, operation, and internal controls of Colruyt Group and about all aspects of corporate governance. We divide ‘Corporate Governance’ into three main sections. One about governance, supervision and management, another about sustainable corporate governance and a third about share ownership.
Governance, supervision and management – Good/sustainable governance – Shareholding
Corporate sustainability
The heart of our mission is 'Together, we create sustainable added value'. Sustainability is and remains the recurrent theme of all our activities, where we want to set in motion a positive spiral from our economic position in the environmental and social spheres as well. For the second year in a row, we link our sustainability reporting to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. We selected seven objectives and explain our vision, approach, and specific results in this chapter.
SDGs 2 – 3 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 12 – 13 – EU Taxonomy – Our indicators
Financial report
In this chapter, you will find all consolidated financial results of the past financial year such as the consolidated income statement, the overview of the achieved and unachieved results, the balance, the cash flow statement, the statement of changes in equity, the management responsibility statement, and the report of the auditor.
