It is at this point that I give my annual message to shareholders.
As you will have noticed in reading the annual report, financial year 2010 was one of many challenges, but also of very promising achievements.
Our adjusted operating income before amortization rose from 339 million to 382 million dollars, an increase of nearly 13%. All of our financial indicators improved, making us one of the leaders in the print, media and interactive sectors in North America.
As Executive Chair of the Board, I am proud to tell you that our shareholders continued to benefit from the success and growth of their company in the marketplace. This success translated into a dual increase in the annual dividend on participating shares, raising it from 32 cents in 2009 to 44 cents today.
These financial results are all the more satisfying in that they were achieved in an economy that is still recovering. They show that we have continued to move ahead with the necessary transformation of Transcontinental to ensure it remains in the forefront of the new trends and realities of our industry.
I congratulate François Olivier, our President and Chief Executive Officer, his team and all of our employees for this impressive success. I fully support the responsible management established by our management team, which always seeks to protect the common and long-term interests of our employees, customers and shareholders.
I will leave it to François and Benoît Huard, our Chief Financial Officer, to give you a more detailed picture of our results for fiscal 2010.
For my part, I will explain why Transcontinental has a promising future in the age of mobile communications and occupies a special place with all the BlackBerries, iPads and iPhones of this world.
Our reason for being versus the way we do business
The future of Transcontinental is usually linked to that of print. But the essence of our fundamental mission goes far beyond this business niche where we excel. Our day-to-day objective is to help businesses and advertisers reach and keep their target audiences. That is our reason for being in business.
The same holds true for our business model, which is based on being close to our customers and anticipating their needs. It is the way we do business that has ensured our success and the success of our clients.
I am convinced that to succeed, businesses must have the ability to change as their social, cultural and technological environment changes.
At Transcontinental, we have been aware of the key factors in our success for a long time. We are listening to our customers, employees and shareholders, and systematically working on our metamorphosis.
From our original focus on a broad array of printed products for mass and targeted markets, Transcontinental’s offering has gradually shifted to integrate advertising personalization through data management, as well as the new communications platforms, including mobile. We now have a comprehensive offering that combines mass and personalized marketing and that employs print, new media, digital platforms and interactive platforms. This puts us in a unique position in Canada.
Our products and services are evolving in a carefully paced and integrated transformation, one that is in continuity with our history and culture of efficiency.
This integrated transformation has shifted Transcontinental from a product-based manufacturing mode to an advisory mode anchored in market intelligence, innovation and marketing solutions. Over the past several years, thanks to strategic acquisitions, the creation of new products and the innovative solutions by our people, we have greatly enriched our business relations with our customers.
I am convinced that our future success will depend on our ability to continue this transformation. Many people have asked me about the future of our industries. My response to them is that newspapers, magazines, books, flyers and direct marketing products will continue to be an integral part of the communications, sales and marketing strategies of our clients, and that these products will remain an important social and culture component. But, obviously, this will be in complementarity with the new digital platforms.
And this is familiar territory for us. Indeed, the central tenet of our business strategy is to strengthen the core and build the new.
So we look to the future with confidence. We serve an impressive list of customers to whom we already provide a good portion of their marketing tools and with whom we have developed great business credibility. Plus, we have the financial capacity to add new products and services through in-house development and through further acquisitions.
The theme of our annual report, “An Integrated Transformation,” also applies to our systematic approach to sustainable development. This approach is in continuity with and an expansion of our environmental commitment, an area where we have long been recognized as leaders.
Our commitment to the environment is well integrated into our management decisions, as shown by the concrete action we have taken to promote sustainable development in social as well as environment and economic terms. I am very proud of our second Sustainability Report, which has received a B Application Level rating based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), a highly respected and international standard for methodology.
We will be offering you a brochure that summarizes our Sustainability Report as you leave this meeting. The full report is available on Transcontinental’s website. I thank the members of our committee, which has representatives from every sector of our organization, who have worked all year to develop and monitor our sustainable development objectives.
Ever since it was founded, Transcontinental has been a sure value and a key partner to its customers. At every stage of our growth we have invested to meet the needs of our customers and provide them with effective and cutting-edge products. Transcontinental was born out of change and has continued to grow through change, with help from its culture of innovation. Going forward, we will certainly continue to meet the challenges we face.
CONCLUSION
To conclude, I would like to thank the members of our Board of Directors for their invaluable contribution to Transcontinental’s progress. They set an excellent example by representing the interests of all our shareholders with great professionalism. I would also like to again welcome our new directors, Nathalie Marcoux, Vice President, Finance, for Capinabel Inc., and Anna Martini, President of Groupe Dynamite Inc. Both will bring us the benefit of their experience in companies that have excellent reputations in the business community.
I also thank our customers and shareholders for their loyalty, and our employees for their dedication and commitment to the transformation of Transcontinental.
Lastly, I would like to reiterate that I have complete confidence in our management team under the leadership of François Olivier. Everything starts with the vision at the top of the organization, which is then carried out by our senior managers.
I view the future of Transcontinental with great confidence. We will continue to show that we can meet the expectations of our employees, customers and shareholders, the three pillars of the organization. Your company is in good hands.
I will now pass the mike over to our President and Chief Executive Officer, François Olivier.
