GRI:
Dear All,
I am pleased to provide you with the Integrated Annual Report of the Budimex Group for 2020, which summarises our financial results and social responsibility activities.
It has been a special year for all of us – as both business-wise and personally we have been through a pandemic. We have learned many new solutions. We have tested and implemented various methods of remote communication among ourselves and alongside our investors. We have also had to develop effective ways of safeguarding the health of our employees, so as to ensure that our staff continue to have the safest possible working environment, and to continue our business operations. On the other hand, despite the many challenges, it was a year in which we attained the best financial indicators in over a decade.
Budimex Group ended 2020 with a sales revenue of over PLN 8.3 billion, an increase of 0.8 billion compared to the previous year. Sales were at a better level than we assumed and forecast. We closed the year with over PLN 2 billion. We also doubled the Group’s net profit from PLN 226 million to PLN 459 million, which gave us a profitability of 5.5%, an increase by 2.5 percentage points over 2019.
In 2020, despite the pandemic, we maintained a fairly constant level of employment and were not affected by redundancies, which allowed us to maintain thousands of jobs. At this exceptional time, we were particularly concerned that the employees of the Budimex Group should feel safe, derive satisfaction from their work and have opportunities for development. The health and safety of our staff has been, and is, our priority. We have introduced partial hybrid working. We have provided our employees with the necessary protective equipment, as well as access to free COVID-19 detection tests. We have regularly informed them about the current situation with the pandemic. We have prepared and made available information and education activities on preventing the coronavirus infection, about caring for physical health and offering psychological consultations.
Last year, despite the ongoing pandemic, rather than stopping our efforts for local communities that still needed support, we tried even harder than in previous years due to this particularly difficult period. We continued the implementation of the ‘Parent Zone’ and ‘Hello ICE’ programmes. We opened two more ‘Parent Zones’ in hospitals in Wejherowo and Piotrków Trybunalski. In total, since the beginning of the programme, we have prepared 34 zones, which have already been used by 700,000 children and parents. We have also adapted the ‘Hello ICE’ programme to the new reality, moving most of the activities to the online world and inviting children to be active outdoors. As part of the programme, we have painted three - dimensional (3D) pedestrian lanes in four locations (Bartoszyce, Lesznowola, Sanok and Miechów). The pandemic hasn’t stopped our staff from volunteer work, which has been tailored to the current situation. In addition to the standard projects, our volunteers during the special edition of “Volunteering in the fight against COVID-19” were able to submit and implement activities that supported the people and organisations most severely affected by the coronavirus. Moreover, the Budimex Group donated nearly PLN 3 million to help hospitals as part of "We are together. We help!” campaign. We have also become involved in the construction works to adjust four hospitals to admit patients with COVID-19. We joined the #niezwalniajmy initiative, which aims to protect jobs in Polish companies. In 2020, Budimex initiated the ‘House of hearts’ project, thanks to which – in cooperation with other companies – by the end of March 2021 it had built and equipped a house for a 16-person family in need from near Radomsko. We have also launched a new programme “Budimex for Nature” to support environmental protection.
We want to evolve according to the principles of sustainable development. We set ourselves ambitious and measurable goals, the achievement of which we transparently account for. The year 2020 was a transition period, in which we completed the CSR Strategy for the years 2016-2020 and created a new action plan in this area for the years 2021-2023. The new CSR Strategy will allow the Budimex Group to respond to the most important challenges facing us, related among others to the reduction of the impact on the environment and climate, counteracting fraud or continuously ensuring the highest OHS standards.
2020 brought us many prestigious titles and prizes, including: „Golden Leaf of CSR” of the Polityka weekly, „Well-Perceived Company”, „Employer Branding Excellence Award”, „Best Quality Employer” and „Responsible Employer 2020” in the Responsible Employer – HR Leader competition”. oreover, Budimex advanced to 6th place (from 18th place in the preceding year) in the „Responsible Companies Ranking”.
I would like to thank our staff for their exceptional commitment to their work, which has enabled us not only to meet our targets but even to exceed them, for understanding the seriousness of the pandemic situation and for working together to keep us all healthy and safe. I appreciate the fact that despite such a difficult situation caused by the pandemic, not only in the professional sphere but also often in the private sphere, they were open to helping others.
I would also like to extend my thanks for the trust and effective cooperation in such a difficult year to investors and customers and all our stakeholders.
Dariusz Blocher
President of the Management Board of Budimex S.A.