Our strategy for profitable growth is designed to accelerate identical sales growth, improve returns, and build on our strong foundation to continue creating value for shareholders.
In 2010 we launched a new vision aimed at offering all our stakeholders better choice, better value, better life, every day. To help achieve this, we have further aligned our business objectives and priorities and adopted a common strategic framework across the Group.
We are looking at opportunities to grow our operations in our existing markets and new ones.
We are also working to expand our non-food offering, online businesses and other services.
To drive our strategy, we have a company-wide business model. The model is a virtuous circle
in which we continuously work to lower our cost base in order to invest in price, value, and the products and services we offer. This allows us to drive sales, win new customers, and allocate capital to further grow our business.
\
We continue to reduce costs by streamlining and standardizing processes and simplifying how we operate to improve efficiency. We are ahead of plan with our three-year €350 million cost reduction program (2010–2012) that will enable further investment to benefit our customers. The program focuses on all aspects of our business, including store expenses, supply chain, and overhead, and will also deliver additional sourcing cost savings over the same period.
We have built powerful consumer brands in each of our markets that provide value, an appealing offering of products and services, and a great shopping experience for our customers. We continue to find new ways to increase existing customer loyalty, win new customers, and further drive identical sales growth.
We allocate capital to improve our infrastructure, IT systems, and store formats, and for acquisitions in existing and new markets.
Our Group-wide strategy remains focused on five areas: our portfolio, growth, our organization, financial targets, and corporate responsibility.