Page 9 - Paragon Annual Report 2

Delivering our strategic objectives
The group made significant progress this year in delivering our strategic objectives including:
Growth and profitability
We continued our strong growth this year and
our Group proforma sales are now €642m.
We continue to fuel our growth through a mix of acquisition and organic growth in our key sectors. At the same time we are focused on improving profitability. This year our EBITDA grew by 53%.
Achieving scale in strategic markets
We attained a market leading position in the customer communications sector throughout Europe and in the UK this year. We completed eight acquisitions and increased our market share and scale in key geographic markets and industry segments.
Achieving significant scale, particularly in key markets, delivers tangible benefits to the Group through greater purchasing power, greater internal synergies, and an ability to compete for larger contracts which attract less competition in
the market.
Data driven, powered by analytics
Continuous improvement embedded in
our culture
We have embedded our continuous improvement programme (CIP) in all operations. This delivered
a significant and continuing contribution to EBITDA during the year. The programme will deliver ongoing benefits as all acquired companies work to Paragon’s exacting standards for efficiency
and value delivery.
Financial & operational discipline
We maintain a strong discipline, with clear focus
on costs and continuous improvement throughout all our operations. This ensures that we maintain
a strong financial foundation and deliver sustainable and growing profitability for the longer term.
We finished the year with cash on hand and a low debt to EBITDA ratio (on a proforma basis) which positions the Group very well for continued acquisition activity.
Core values
In Paragon we adhere to a set of core values which underpin everything we do – we are entrepreneurial, customer focused and agile. We adhere to the highest level of integrity and we apply a rigourous risk management approach throughout all our operations.
Fuelling our growth – a successful bond placement
We successfully completed our first private
bond placement in December 2016. This was oversubscribed and reflected confidence in our strong operating discipline and successful track record. Our overall debt level remains comfortable
and we have significant scope for future acquisition and leverage should we need it.
We have added extensive capability in data analytics and management areas. Paragon Customer Communications includes digital marketing and data analysis experts working alongside creative and planning teams; this allied to our transactional and regulatory output ability allows us to deliver to our customers comprehensive end-to-end services. We provide high volume, mission critical services that also add value and drive ROI. The rapid arrival of GDPR* is driving significant demand from our customers for providers with full end-to-end, secure capabilities.
Continuing investment in technology
Our objective is to continuously invest in technology, and to acquire technology-driven companies, to continue our shift away from commodities towards complex solution delivery and drive improved profitability. Through capital investment and R&D we doubled our capacity for the manufacture of inlays in our Identification division, at existing Paragon facilities in France and through investment a new production facility in Romania.
The acquisition of ASK also brings additional technological capability to the Group.
* GDPRistheGeneralDataProtectionRegulation,aEuropean Union (EU) regulation to strengthen data protection for individuals in the EU
“ In Paragon we adhere to a set of core values which underpin everything we do –weare entrepreneurial, customerfocused and agile. ”
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Paragon Group Limited – 05258175
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES