|
|
|
|
||
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The directors have pleasure in submitting to shareholders a Summary Report of the Directors for the year to 31 August 1999. This report is a summary of the information in the Annual Report and Accounts for the year to 31 August 1999. Business Review and Future Developments A review of the business and likely future developments are set out in the Chairman's Statement, Chief Executive's Operating Review and Financial Review. Dividends An accelerated interim ordinary dividend of 15.00p per share was paid, as a Foreign Income Dividend, on 1 April 1999. Annual General Meeting Details of the AGM to be held on 31 January 2000 at the Hotel Continental London, 1 Hamilton Place, Hyde Park Corner, London W1V 0QY and an explanation of the resolutions to be proposed are contained in the accompanying Chairman's letter. Political Contributions No UK political contributions were made during the year. Directors The names of the board of directors are shown below. Brief biographical details of the directors as at 15 November 1999 are described in the Annual Report and Accounts (PDF format). During the year Tony Hales, Tony Trigg and Nigel Stapleton retired from the board. Stephen Alexander and Ramon Mora-Figueroa retired from the board on 6 September 1999. During the year Philip Bowman, Graham Hetherington and Richard Turner were appointed as executive directors. In accordance with the articles of association, Donald Brydon, Graham Hetherington, David Malpas, David Scotland and Richard Turner retire at the forthcoming AGM and offer themselves for election or re-election. Corporate Governance During the year the group has broadly complied with the Principles of Good Governance and the Code of Best Practice, published by the London Stock Exchange as the Combined Code. The directors have followed the London Stock Exchange's transitional rules and have continued to review and report upon internal financial controls in accordance with the ICAEW's 1994 guidance. Our auditor, KPMG Audit Plc, has reviewed the directors' statement on the company's compliance to the extent required by the London Stock Exchange. The full corporate governance statement is set out on pages 48 and 49 of the Annual Report and Accounts. The recently issued Turnbull Report provides further guidance on the company's obligations in order to comply with the internal control aspects of the Combined Code and becomes effective for accounting periods ending on or after 23 December 1999. Allied Domecq PLC continues to support the Combined Code and has already implemented action plans to move towards compliance with these new requirements for the year to 31 August 2000. Citizenship Charitable contributions in the UK totalled £790,000. This amount included donations of £695,000 to the Allied Domecq Trust which itself gave some £743,000 to a variety of charitable causes. Our commitment to the community has been focused on the arts, education and the environment. We are committed to high standards of environmental practice and have achieved ISO 9000 (International Standards Organisation) accreditation for quality in production processes at the majority of our sites. During the year our distilleries at Laphroaig, in Scotland, and Segovia, in Spain, received ISO 14001 accreditation for environmental performance, which commits us to continual improvement. We work closely with organisations involved in developing alcohol policy and research, and informing the public about responsible consumption of alcohol. Allied Domecq is a founder member of the UK Portman Group, the Amsterdam Group in Europe, The Century Council in the USA, and ICAP, the International Center for Alcohol Policies.
|