Stakeholders are those individuals or groups who are affected by a company’s products or operations, or who in turn have a significant influence or impact on the company.

Richemont’s main stakeholders are:

• our clients and customers, to whom we provide high quality goods and services, and whose expectations we seek to exceed;
• employees, who drive the success of our business;
• suppliers and business partners, who we rely on to be able to deliver our quality products to our clients;
• local communities where our operations are based;
• the cultural community, who we engage with through our citizenship activities;
• regulators, who provide the regulatory framework within which we operate;
• shareholders, who underpin our business and to whom we seek to deliver value;
• non-governmental organisations, with whom we engage through our involvement in industry associations; and
• the environment, which we include as a stakeholder in recognition of the impact our operations have on the natural environment and our reliance on natural resources for raw materials.

These stakeholder groups were identified through a process involving external consultants, Group Internal Audit and discussions at the CSR Committee, together with feedback already collected from customers and other stakeholders.

By working with our stakeholders we seek to understand external expectations and work to improve our CSR performance.

A range of methods are used to generate feedback from stakeholders, including:

• customer feedback on quality issues through comprehensive after-sales service;
• regular quantitative research;
• customer surveys, meetings, briefings and hospitality events;
• interactive employee training;
• employee newsletters, management briefings and Intranet sites;
• employee Works Councils in some countries;
• one-to-one meetings with suppliers, business partners and opinion formers;
• participation in industry groups to develop shared practice on social, environmental and ethical responsibility;
• via the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) and in partnership with other members, we engage with key industry stakeholders including non-governmental organisations;
• engagement with investors, including specialist socially responsible investment (SRI) agencies, on our social, environmental and governance performance;
• website contact for Corporate Affairs;
• public policy engagement with regulators;
• regular engagement with the cultural community, principally through our corporate citizenship activities; and
• feedback on our CSR report, which we invite each year and seek to respond to in our planning for the next report.

We continuously review issues raised by stakeholders and, where appropriate, integrate these into our action plan and reporting. Examples during the year include:

• Additional disclosures in the Group’s 2011 Annual Report in respect of executive compensation arrangements. This is in response to the communiqués issued by SIX Swiss Exchange (‘SIX’). The Group considers SIX to be a key stakeholder and representative of investors in general. Accordingly, representatives of the Group are in regular contact with SIX to discuss specific Group-related matters. The 2011 AGM will include a consultative vote on the Group’s compensation arrangements.
• The continued reporting of sales for the five months to end-August (prior to the Annual General Meeting held in September) and for the three and nine months to December. This discretionary reporting maintains an on-going dialogue with investors between SIX-regulated announcements.
• The development of the 2011 CSR Report. Its development reflects the observations of ‘CSR report rating agencies’ with regard to its 2010 CSR Report and seeks to clarify certain points, above all making it easier to locate the Group’s existing disclosures and making clear the topics where the Group collects, but does not publish, certain data. The same approach has been taken with respect to the Richemont website, aided by the observations of external specialists.