Basic HTML Version
5
ANNUAL REPORT 2011
History will remember 2011 as the year when
Portugal again required external assistance,
assuming commitments meant to substantially
reduce the budget deficit by controlling spending
and above all raising tax revenues. As a corollary,
a new and more intense austerity programme
was implemented, leading to a drastic fall in
internal demand, especially consumption, from
the second half of the year on. The heightened
austerity continued to weigh on consumers’
decision-making as they opted for more
affordable goods in smaller quantities, altering
consumption habits and patterns and placing
the Ibersol Group before an added challenge
– the need to make the inherent effects on
high market competition levels compatible
with the need to adjust value proposals to new
consumption paradigms. Consumer habits and
references are changing quickly and the Ibersol
Group has thus sought to anticipate the impact
of those changes: at information system level,
by stimulating structural projects, in forms of
interaction with consumers (where pricing
stands out) and the adjustment to new client
segments and concept offers.
For the Ibersol Group the future is built in the
present, whereby it is vital to strengthen, even
in an adverse situation, the capabilities built up
over the last several years.
Efforts have therefore been made to maintain
innovation levels; the process of reorganizing
its portfolio was continued, along with rigorous
follow-up of operations to ensure responsible
return without jeopardizing active sustainability.
Given the unstable panorama affecting all of
Europe, the Group sought to consolidate its
internationalization strategy, which aims to
extend activity on the Iberian Peninsula to the
Portuguese and Spanish speaking countries,
penetrating geographic areas that will enable
new lines of future growth. It has therefore
continued to progress through the various
stages required to establish a presence in
Angola, where it should begin operations in the
very near future, as soon as the last procedures
are completed.
Management
Report