Dear Stakeholder,
Writing to you after a year like the one that just ended, my thoughts go first of all to the people stricken by the virus and their families and my thanks to all those who each day help us to fight it. From the beginning, our priority at Pirelli was to protect the health and safety of our people and their families, through stringent HSE (Health Safety Environment) measures and innovative welfare services, and support the community too, through a series of initiatives in support of the fight against Covid. Our experience in China, where the virus struck before it did in other places, helped us to respond quickly elsewhere to both the health emergency and its economic consequences. The complexity of this period has made us stronger and everyone’s work once more confirmed the centrality of the “Human Dimension”, not incidentally the theme of the 2020 Pirelli Annual Report.
First in our sector, we redefined our targets implementing actions to safeguard all Stakeholders and aimed at preserving profitability and cash flow. In the context of a tyre market that underwent a marked decline, we generated over 200 million euro in cash and registered profitability of 11.6%, returning to remunerate shareholders in 2021 with a total dividend of 80 million euro. The months ahead will still be challenging, but the “reset” triggered by the pandemic offers many opportunities that Pirelli is ready to seize.
With 2020 behind us, we have presented a new Industrial Plan with a time horizon through 2025. Thanks to our technology, our links with carmakers, our commercial strength and our products, we are confident that in 2022 we will return to pre-Covid values. We want to enhance our position in High Value also becoming leaders in specialties, taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the new trends in mobility, electric first among them, but also cycling, and develop services linked to connectivity, thanks to our CyberTyre. Sustainability is ever more central throughout our plan, and we will continue to invest in it in the knowledge that safeguarding our planet and the community are also essential for the future of our companies.
Our brand remains a fundamental strength. Everywhere, in fact, Pirelli is synonymous with safety, technology, reliability, as well as competition, aesthetics, entrepreneurial culture. We reinforce such factors daily also thanks to the many sporting competitions in which we are involved, like Formula 1, where we have extended our partnership until 2024. This also includes Superbike, skiing and the America’s Cup where Luna Rossa, also thanks to the contribution of Pirelli, achieved a result without precedent in the history of sailing competitions. In terms of our identity, the work of the Fondazione Pirelli is also fundamental as it conserves our archives and our history, as is that of Pirelli HangarBicocca, our museum space which helps us to observe and understand contemporary culture. In such an extraordinary year, we thought it right to suspend the publication of the Pirelli Calendar, devolving part of the project’s resources to the fight against the pandemic.
Preparation and passion have always been the most important resource of the women and men of Pirelli. To all of them, and to our Stakeholders, I extend my thanks once more.
Marco Tronchetti Provera
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