September is the beginning of our Company year which commences with the recently held Annual Conference where we review the concluding year and establish priorities for the forthcoming one, the theme for the year ahead being 'Finding New Ways' . We live in turbulent times with both international and national events causing considerable concern and, like many companies some of last year's targets will be missed, though there has also been progress in many areas, particularly developments in the International Business Division, the Distribution Centre in Zambia and some growth has been achieved.
The conference was again a most successful event which included various reviews and several external speakers, notably Nick Hughes, a pioneer of m-pesa, who spoke about the opportunities in virtual credit platforms. We all appreciated his contribution.
A long tradition of the Conference is the presentation of various Annual Manager Awards, this year Support Manager of The Year being Supply Director Henry Davis for his great efforts in establishing and operationalizing the Tatu Distribution Centre which has transformed our logistics efficiency and Front Line Manager of the Year being MD D&S Uganda Patrick Mufwoya whose efforts have turned the company from being one of the Group laggards to a star achieving record growth.
Well done to them both as well as all other award winners that are given on P3 of this Newsletter. Two other events occurred recently that deserve comment. Firstly D&S was awarded Integrated Management System certification, a status that consolidates three Standards for Quality Management, Health and Safety and Environment which recognises D&S's commitment in these important areas. Certified by Kenya Bureau Standards, the process was quite rigorous and attaining this milestone is a real achievement. The exercise was led by the Internal Audit team headed by Benard Karimi and executed by departmental champions and I'm grateful for their great efforts.
Finally, I mention the release of the 2024 D&S Product Manual, the 15th Edition, which details specifications of the D&S product range and is the industry reference in our various product segments. As usual it has been updated to include many new products, some of which are detailed elsewhere. Several thousand are being printed for distribution in our various markets and it is also available in soft copy on the D&S website. The preparation is a major exercise and I am grateful to Product Manager Lillian Maigo and Marketing Manager Jos Musima for the great efforts they put into this task.
