Annual report 2016

OUR MISSION

Shaping the bodies and minds of women

Our gratitude goes out to all of our employees. Their involvement in the realization of the company objectives and their dynamism enable us to achieve the reported results and to have confidence in the future.

Photography Petrovsky & Ramone (Marie Jo) Daniel Kennedy (PrimaDonna) Jonas Bresnan (Andres Sarda) Form, typesetting, printing and finishing L. capitan 125102 | www.lcapitan.be Deze jaarbrochure is eveneens beschikbaar in het Nederlands, bij de hoofdzetel van de onderneming. Contact For clarification of the information in this annual report please contact: Bart Rabaey Consulting VOF, always represented by Bart Rabaey CFO Tel.: (09) 365 21 00 Fax: (09) 365 21 70 Editor Van de Velde NV Lageweg 4 9260 Wichelen Tel.: (09) 365 21 00 Fax: (09) 365 21 70 VAT number: BE0448 746 744 Company number RPR 0448 746 744 Dendermonde website: www.vandevelde.eu

Table of contents

1. The year 2016

5



Message from the Chairman

5



Activity report and prospects for 2017

7

2. Description of the company and its activities 13 3. Corporate Governance 15

Remuneration report 18



Information to shareholders 22

4

Consolidated key figures 2016 24

5. Consolidated financial statements and related notes 29

6. Auditor’s report on the consolidated financial statements 64

7. Concise version of the statutory financial statements and the statutory annual report of Van de Velde NV 66

8. Statement of responsible persons 70

9. Employment, environment and contribution to the Belgian Treasury 72

Social accounting 72



Environmental report 78



Contribution to the Belgian Treasury 80

1 | The year 2016 Message from the Chairman Our company has experienced continuous year-on-year growth in recent decades. Unfortunately we were unable to maintain this trend in 2016. While we are not searching for excuses, the fall of sterling was not to our advantage and we were unable to counterbalance the poor results of our retail chain in the United States to a sufficient degree. On an optimistic note, our traditional independent retailer channel has continued to grow in spite of the unfavourable retail climate and our European Retail companies realized growth.

results are worth it. Due to this investment we are not only better able to receive customers and visitors in general, we can also provide our staff with a much more pleasant working environment. Great facilities are not enough. Our ambition is to develop an organization and a culture in which people in various stages of their life and career come to work with passion and pleasure. To that end, we are working in three areas: 1) We want to provide meaningful work, which is why we give attention to employability, variety in staff duties, autonomy and training possibilities. 2) Quality of relationships: we have opted for professional management but cherish the family culture. It is certainly not a conservative or paternalistic culture, but rather one in which people – just like a family – enjoy being together and are concerned about each other. 3) Lastly, we want to strengthen the sense of leadership: leaders who inspire and show confidence in their people, who are skilled listeners.

Our new CEO, Erwin Van Laethem, took over the helm at the end of 2016. There are a number of major challenges, particularly because of how retail is changing. Advancing digitization has a huge impact on shopping behaviour. Industry-wide, online stores account for more than 10% of all purchases and their share is rising spectacularly year on year. Yet that is only the tip of the digital iceberg. A recent study of the luxury goods sector shows that three in every