EADS Annual Report
The challenge
EADS initially hired us as annual report writers in 2004, after we had contacted them with specific proposals for improving its messaging, structure and divisional information. Our challenge was to create a more integrated annual report for Europe’s largest aerospace and defence group, which had been formed through merger just four years earlier. The investor relations department wanted to see a notable improvement in the annual report’s effectiveness, as measured by specific benchmarks.
Our role
We studied brokers’ research to understand the market’s perception of the company. We then visited EADS’ various divisions and headquarter functions across Europe, researching the information we needed and agreeing a drafting process. We wrote an annual report that made a complex company simple, clearly explaining the strategy for growth and the progress made during the year. The document stretched to almost 50 pages, taking in operating divisions including Airbus and Eurocopter, as well as a short description of the business case for the A380 super-jumbo.
The result
The 2004 Annual Report was ranked far higher than ever before in the annual report poll carried out by Germany’s Manager magazine – a key goal for the in-house annual report team. Several years later, we are still writing the annual report and it has gone on to win several International ARC awards. http://www.eads.com/eads/int/en/investor-relations/events-reports/annual-report/2009.html