CFA

Coats corporate and financial reporting wins gold

  • 28 Sep 2016

Coats, the world’s leading industrial thread manufacturer and a major player in the Americas textile crafts market, has won two awards at the 2016 Corporate & Financial Awards.  It was awarded gold for ‘Best communication with overseas investors and/or media’ and bronze for ‘Best printed report: AIM/ small cap’.

The Corporate & Financial Awards, now in its fifth year, celebrates and showcases excellence in financial communications.  It was held on Tuesday 27 October at The Brewery in the City of London.  The judging panel said this year not only saw the highest number of entries but also the strongest calibre of submissions.

In November 2015, Coats announced its intention to delist from the New Zealand (NZX) and Australian (ASX) Stock Exchanges.  A complex but clear strategy was formed to communicate with three major overseas audiences: retail shareholders, institutional investors and regulators to position the delisting as the logical outcome of Coats’ corporate journey and transition and the geography of its assets and shareholder base.  This resulted in 99% of votes cast in favour at the Annual General Meeting held in May 2016.  The delisting then took place in June 2016.

Paul Forman, Group Chief Executive, Coats, said: ‘This was a unique and highly challenging project with many moving parts across two hemispheres.  It was essential to communicate clearly and effectively with all of our financial, investor and regulatory stakeholders and the challenge of achieving the positive result we did cannot be underestimated.’

Coats published its Annual Report in March 2016 which reflected the first full year of it reporting as Coats Group plc, following its return to the London Stock Exchange as the standalone listed entity in February 2015.  The theme was ‘Enhancing the essential products of life’ to illustrate how Coats works towards helping to design and delivery products and services that enhance people’s lives.

To see the Coats Annual Report go to: www.coats.com/ara15

ENDS

For more information and to request a photo of Anne Fahy contact:

Kristina Blissett, Head of Communications kristina.blissett@coats.com
T +44 (0)208 210 5084, M +44 (0)7714 539887

Notes to Editors

About Coats

Coats is the world’s leading industrial thread manufacturer and a major player in the Americas textile crafts market. At home in some 60 countries, Coats employs 19,000 people across six continents. Revenues in 2016 were US$1.5bn.

Coats’ pioneering history and innovative culture ensure the company leads the way around the world: providing complementary and value added products and services to the apparel and footwear industries; applying innovative techniques to develop high technology Performance Materials threads and yarns in areas such as automotive, composites and fibre optics; and extending the crafts offer into new markets and online.

Headquartered in the UK, Coats is a FTSE 250 listed company on the London Stock Exchange.

  • Each year we make enough thread to go into 8 billion pairs of jeans - that’s one for every person on the planet
  • Every month Coats produces enough thread to stretch all the way to the sun
  • More than 450 million pairs of shoes are made every year using Coats’ thread
  • More than 100 million car airbags are made using Coats’ Performance Materials thread every year
  • In 1879 Thomas Edison used Coats’ thread in his experiments to invent the light bulb
  • Our Red Heart knitting and crochet yarn brand has been named ‘America’s Most Recommended’ by the Women’s Choice Award for three years running
  • Our flame retardant Performance Materials threads can withstand temperatures as high as 1,000 degrees Celsius
  • Coats is the second largest supplier of zips to global brands