| | Balance Sheet | Income Statement | Changes in Equity | Cash Flow
|  The Group achieved excellent results in the year to December 3, 2007 and remains on track to achieve all of the objectives that your Board set in their Vision 2010 mission. You would recall having achieved our 2006 vision, your Directors set about crafting a new vision for the Group now commonly referred to as “V 10.” Principally it’s about doubling again – doubling revenues to + $8 billion, doubling profit before taxation to + $1.24 billion and achieving an earnings per share of + $5.00. The 2007 results have demonstrated that we are well underway towards achieving these objectives. Profit before tax increased by 8% to $908 million, a significant improvement over our achievement in 2006. All of the operating sectors within the Group delivered double-digit growth and performed in accordance with the targets set for them. Our focus during the year continued to be on building brand recognition, improving our market share from the existing businesses within our Group, carefully controlling costs, exploiting new export opportunities, and extracting efficiencies from our state-of-the-art plants. As a result of our operating efficiencies, we managed operating costs in proportion to those we experienced in 006, despite significant inflationary pressure impacting on the cost of raw materials, utility and labour costs. Our return on equity employed rose to 21.4% (2006:- 20.4%). In addition, our basic earnings per share grew by 27% to $3.53 (2006:- $ 2.77).........>> more | | | | |
