Finance Monthly - January 2022

What has been keeping you busy over the past 12 months? How have you helped Lidl GB navigate the COVID-19 crisis? COVID-19 played a major role last year. Keeping colleagues and customers safe whilst ensuring we could fulfil our vital role in feeding the nation came with many challenges. Optimising cash flows and raising funds from Investors and our shareholders was the basis for ensuring the business could not only afford the expensive COVID-19 measures but also continue with our ambitious expansion programme. We increased salaries and paid extra bonuses to our front-line colleagues who have risked their health and lives for our customers. We paid back more than £100 million in business rates relief to help the local communities with their funding and we financially supported our suppliers in need. We must, however, not forget Brexit with its ongoing uncertainties about the new regulations and their application, which has tied many resources. Despite all this, my focus was on delivering for our customers, enhancing the in-store experience at the check-out and delivering and continuously improving our app-based loyalty programme, Lidl Plus. As we slowly begin to return to normality, what’s your advice to CFOs navigating the post-COVID-19 world? How are you preparing for this? It is important to recognise that we will see a new normal rather than normality. COVID-19 has changed the way people consume, spend their time and how people work. How we approach it, embracing the new normal, tackling its challenges but also seizing its opportunities, will define future success more than just trying to get back to normal. It will be important to carefully observe and efficiently engage with customers and colleagues to understand their needs and then support the board to adapt the organisation to those behavioural changes as swiftly as possible. A full review of all our processes has helped to identify even more efficiencies. I am proud to say that my organisation is stronger and more robust than ever before. What are some of the main lessons the pandemic has taught you? Most organisations have not had a global pandemic on their risk register. In an ever-changing more globalised world, companies will be challenged by events they have not been able to foresee nor “In an ever- changing more globalised world, companies will be challenged by events they have not been able to foresee nor have their management teams been able to train for.” Bus i ne s s & Economy 28 Finance Monthly.