For the second time, on 30 April 2014, Etica Sgr voted at the general shareholders’ meeting of Campari, an Italian company that operates in the beverage sector, producing alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Etica Sgr attended at the shareholders’ meeting to call management’s attention to some aspects linked to corporate sustainability.
Etica Sgr, having no objection on the truthfulness of the information provided and considering the payout ratio of the Company to be balanced, expressed a favourable vote to the approval of the financial statements and the allocation of the financial year profit. As regards the approval of the remuneration report and the stock option plan, Etica Sgr expressed a contrary vote to both points, in light of some criticalities it had identified. Firstly, it noted the absence of comprehensive information regarding the significances of each individual target and the individual objectives to be achieved to obtain the short and long-term variable remuneration, making it impossible to understand the actual correspondence between the fees paid and the performances achieved. Secondly, the lack of clawback clauses was assessed negatively and attention was called to the right given to the Remuneration Committee to review the mechanisms of remuneration ex-post in the case of significant acquisitions. During the shareholders’ meeting, Etica Sgr described the criticalities identified and suggested that Campari introduce, among the parameters underlying the definition of the variable components of the remuneration of the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer and other Managers with Strategic Responsibilities, objectives of a social and environmental nature. In addition, the Company was asked to publish the figure on the ratio between the average remuneration of the employees of Campari and that of the Chief Executive Officer.
Etica Sgr, in its speech at the shareholders’ meeting, congratulated the Company’s management on the good results achieved and the significant improvement, compared to the previous year, in socio-environmental reporting, in terms of transparency and communication. It was hoped that Campari would undertake to publish a complete Sustainability Report, to the benefit of all stakeholders and prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative Guidelines.
Albeit being aware of Campari’s participation in Spirits Europe and its profuse commitment to define a calculation model of CO2 dedicated to the Spirits sector, Etica Sgr invited Campari to consider implementing the Climate Change and Water questionnaires promoted by the Carbon Disclosure Project and publishing their results. Attention was also called to the need for Campari to adopt a specific environmental policy, identifying both the current performances and the targets to be achieved in terms of atmospheric emissions, use of water resources, water pollution, waste management, percentage of recycling, energy consumption and use of renewable sources, which would also supplement the data already well-reported in the document “Sustainable Campari”.
In its shareholders’ meeting speech, Etica Sgr also requested further details on the audits conducted in relation to issues linked to respect of human rights and workplace safety. Finally, with a view to paying increasing attention to the quality of the products and the supply chain, Campari was asked to consider creating a Fairtrade chain or a line of organic products.
Luca Garavoglia, Chairman of the Company, communicated that in future Campari will strive to improve its environmental reporting (waste management, percentage of recycling, use of renewable energy and energy consumption) and to develop a line of organic or fair-trade products. The existing ratio between the average remuneration of Campari’s employees and that of the Chief Executive Officer was not made public due to difficulties in homogenising the data relating to the different countries in which Campari operates.
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