Looking ahead
Q-Park's prospects are excellent. Our financial position is good and the internal split strengthens this good starting position by creating increased transparency and responding to demands from the financial markets.
The final decision as to whether we will continue as two separate companies will be made in three years' time. Until that moment, Opco and Propco maintain a close relationship and are both housed under one roof with joint Executive and Supervisory boards. Nevertheless, the proposed split will still have a significant impact on our organisation, because the focus of Opco and Propco will shift and differences will arise in marketing approach.
The parking company will concentrate on expanding parking services and earnings growth through economies of scale, strategic pricing policy and by providing effective products and services. The real estate company will make maximum use of the opportunities to invest in parking property and increase the value of this investment property by having it operated effectively.
When there is more clarity about the further split between Opco and Propco we will tune our CSR policy to the new situation. This is not likely to be the case before 2017.
Q-Park has changed the organisational structure and formed four international clusters: Mid = Netherlands, Germany and Belgium; West = Great Britain and Ireland; South = France; North = Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. This will also strengthen the CSR policy, CSR process and the CSR performance. The clusters encourage collaboration and will result in improved sustainability performance. In the coming years we want to pursue this route further and divide knowledge and systems even more efficiently between clusters, with the aim of streamlining national and international operations.
Our primary ambition for the coming years remains providing quality and sustainability for our stakeholders. This is what characterises and distinguishes us and forms the foundation for sustainability ambitions for the future. In addition to achieving our goals, we continue to work on integrating the two annual reports, further optimising the data processing and the effectiveness of our CSR policy.
Multi-annual perspective
- Q-Park is the research institute concerning strategies for applying optimum parking tariffs.
- Transparency in actual costs. Parking tariffs will be dynamic; they will be based on actual costs and value.
- All known, often recurring customers will receive a digital invoice or will pay in advance online.
- Q-Park is the most attractive parking partner because of our special services which we tune to the various locations and because of our ‘Smart City Concepts’.
Q-Park will make paying for parking even easier through innovative payment methods which enable effective parking tariff bands. Cashless payment will become the standard. We will link ICT systems and data with partner systems to provide integrated customer services to knowledge centres such as universities and government bodies. We will generate greater support for regulated parking and will inspire visitors to inner cities to make more conscious mobility choices. Through location specific pricing variations and dynamic pricing strategies we will generate a better understanding of supply and demand.
In 2014 we will supplement our policy with aspects which, in 2013, were indicated as material, such as being a good employer, anti-corruption policy and customer data privacy. For the 2014 report we will request external assurance with limited certainty.
From 2015, we will be extending the remuneration policy to the second management layer, and the financial and non-financial performance of operating activities will be fully integrated in one report. In 2016 we shall determine the targets to 2020.
We want to share our CSR performance with our stakeholders more frequently. From 2016 we shall do that every six months. Subsequently, we plan to release the most recent data on a quarterly basis. For the 2017 financial year we will request external assurance with a reasonable degree of certainty.