PARIS, November 27, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --
Today, Saint-Gobain held a meeting for investors and financial
analysts to discuss its medium-term strategy.
Three pillars help drive the Group's strategy
The Group's priority is to focus on high-growth, high
value-added markets in habitat and industry.
- Innovative Materials constitute the locomotive of
innovation of the Group, in particular thanks to their diversified
markets in sustainable habitat and high-tech industrial
applications, increasingly co-developed with our customers;
- Construction Products - whose
differentiation versus commodity products continues to progress -
are seeing their markets grow faster than GDP per capita in both
mature and emerging countries. With leadership positions and strong
brands, Construction Products have a balanced global presence and
spearhead the Group's drive into newly emerging markets;
- Building Distribution with its deep knowledge of local
markets, ingrained culture of customer focus and well-recognized
brands, holds top-ranking positions on the growing renovation
market and provides a strong accelerator for the Habitat
strategy.
2013-2018 strategy
Saint-Gobain will continue to roll out its strategy over the
next five years, focusing on three main areas:
- Improving the Group's growth potential by focusing more sharply
on high value-added, asset-light activities; expanding its
footprint in emerging countries; and further strengthening its
business portfolio, particularly through the disposal of
Verallia;
- Creating a stronger presence in differentiated products and
solutions, with R&D efforts focused on local projects
co-developed with its customers and on the fast-growing markets of
sustainable habitat and industrial applications. Marketing
initiatives will also be stepped up with an ambitious digital
strategy and by the development of ever stronger brands;
- Continuing to work towards management's priorities of achieving
operational excellence, with an additional cost savings plan over
2014-2015; further progress in Corporate Social Responsibility;
attractive returns for shareholders; and a persistently solid
financial structure.
This vision for Saint-Gobain development going forward is based
on strategic leadership positions that will allow the Group to
create value for its shareholders and be one of the strongest and
best-positioned companies in materials and construction
technologies.
2013-2018 strategic goals
For each of these strategic focuses, the Group has set itself
the following goals over the next five years:
- Strengthen the Group's profile to raise
its potential for organic growth:
- Reduce capital intensity in developed countries to 27%-29%
- Focus investments outside Western
Europe so that two-thirds of Innovative Materials and
Construction Products industrial assets are located there
- Complete the Group's business refocus by disposing of Verallia
and stepping up small or mid-scale acquisitions: €4bn in
acquisitions
- Focus Building Distribution development on leadership
positions
- Increase the Group's focus on differentiation:
- Concentrate R&D and marketing on local, co-developed
innovations: +50% co-developments and partnerships
- Improve internal differentiation ratio (to reach 53% of Group
sales) and new solutions ratio (target 30% of Innovative Materials
and Construction Products sales)
- Step up development on highly innovative industrial markets to
reach between €750m and €1bn in additional sales in new
High-Performance Materials niche segments
- Boost market demand for higher value-added solutions by
supporting sustainable construction
- Enhance the Group's online offer to reach over €1.5bn of sales,
or 15% of Building Distribution sales, on the relevant markets in
2018, versus 5% currently
- Better associate the Group's brands with innovation, with a 5
point increase in average brand awareness
- Continue to work towards management's
priorities:
- Continuously seek operational excellence: €800m in additional
cost savings in 2014-2015
- Make further progress in the Corporate Social Responsibility
area
- Target attractive returns for shareholders
- Maintain a solid financial structure
Discover all of the presentations on http://www.saint-gobain.com
from 2:30pm onwards.
About Saint-Gobain
Saint-Gobain, the world leader in habitat markets, designs,
manufactures and distributes high-performance building materials,
bringing innovative solutions to meet today's global challenges,
including growth, energy and the environment. With 2012 sales of
€43.2 billion, Saint-Gobain operates in 64 countries and has nearly
193,000 employees. For more information about Saint-Gobain, please
visit http://www.saint-gobain.com.
Analyst/Investor relations
Gaetano TERRASINI
Vivien DARDEL
Alexandra BAUBIGEAT
+33-1-47-62-32-52
+33-1-47-62-44-29
+33-1-47-62-30-93
Press relations
Sophie CHEVALLON Susanne TRABITZSCH
+33-1-47-62-30-48
+33-1-47-62-43-25
SOURCE Saint-Gobain
