Letter from the Chairwoman

Dear friends,

Once again, we have ended a successful year thanks to a business model focused on solidity and sustainable growth thanks to our strategy of quality at a good price for our customers, and above all focused on the loyalty that this and our innovations engender in our clients.

More than 40 million people trust in us when doing their shopping, which is a big responsibility that we take on with the highest level of commitment.

Accordingly, we have developed a transversal programme called “Proyecto Cliente”, which is centred on improving consumers’ experience at DIA. Our aim is to ensure that employees at all levels within the company become even more aware of the importance of our customers and calibrate their day-to-day actions with customer satisfaction in mind. Our staff has warmly received this successful initiative. In Spain alone, where we piloted this initiative, more than 2,000 employees from our offices, warehouses, and stores had the opportunity to be part of these working groups, contributing their views with ideas and initiatives that have already allowed us to undertake new projects.

We also want our social responsibility projects to be increasingly close to our staff and their families, which is why we strive for all of them to be able to participate and be with us. By way of example, I would mention the launch of our Superliga DIA in Spain, the race to support children with cancer in Sao Paulo, the help given to young mothers at risk of social exclusion in Portugal, and the campaign to collect clothes in Argentina, among many other initiatives.

Accompanying our customers, there are more than 44,000 of us, across a total of five countries in which we operate. We make up a committed team that is showing it is able to adapt to a changing environment with new answers to each of the increasingly demanding business needs, with innovation and digitalisation, but understanding at all times that the main focus of our activity is the consumer. I thank the entire team for the efforts made, and in whom I undoubtedly trust to attain our company’s objectives for another year.

And we cannot forget our important travel companions, our franchisees and franchises: more than 3,500 entrepreneurs are travelling on this road with us. For us, their dedication, effort, and closeness to the client represent a source of inspiration and a fundamental part of growth. They deserve our recognition, and that of society, for their contribution and commitment to the development and progress of the local economy.

However, our commercial activity does not make us forget the obligations of transparency and good governance that we have as a listed company with our shareholders and with society in general. Accordingly, during 2016 we continued to work on corporate governance matters and, following the good governance recommendations, we have made public all our corporate policies, which readers of this report can easily find on our corporate website: www.diacorporate.com. Each of our upcoming annual reports will include detailed information about the degree of implementation of our policies.

We have also analysed and recommended changes in our organisation and our Board of Directors for 2017 to adapt to the new requirements and demands of our market and our society. We have done this to ensure that our organisation in Spain and other countries can deal with future demands in terms of knowledge of, and training in, new technologies, new infrastructures and materials, new trends and innovation in the distribution of food, cosmetics, and health and beauty products. Accordingly, we are involving our directors and employees in the digital transformation, and are training our teams and franchisees.

Furthermore, we have worked on the Social Responsibility Master plan for the 2017-2019 period, which, as of the publication date of this report, has been reviewed and validated by the Board of Directors, having previously been studied by the Audit Committee.

Our Social Responsibility master plan includes 16 lines of action that have materialised in more than 35 projects that cover aspects of corporate management, efficiency improvements in environmental management, an increase in the levels of satisfaction of our employees and of our franchisees, and which include specific social actions that require being increasingly closer to society as a whole.

I invite you to read this report which includes the details of what I have briefly summarised above, and I now sign off reiterating my thanks to everyone, and particularly our customers, employees, franchisees, suppliers, and you, the shareholders, for the trust that you place in our company year after year. This is why we will continue to work on making our company an example for everyone.

Ana María Llopis Rivas
Non-executive Chairwoman