SATO Corporation, Press release, 9th Feb 2017 at 3:35 pm Annual report highlights successes in customer service and sustainability SATO's Annual report 2016 complements the figures and charts of the financial statement released last week by bringing forward the everyday work and successes of SATO's personnel. Aiming towards a continuously improving customer service is bearing fruit: Customers are increasingly willing to recommend SATO as a housing provider and the Net Promoter Score among SATO residents went up by two percentage points. SATO also did well in energy saving as for example specific heat consumption went down by 3.3%.
- We updated our strategy and raised the customer-first principle to the core of everything we do, says SATO President and CEO Saku Sipola . - We were more actively present for our residents: at meet ups in home buildings, during apartment inspections, by telephone and at different customer events. All in all, the largest family event gathered approximately 1,000 of our customers.
SATO launched the design of a new customer service model last year. This spring, the company will bring real estate management back as part of its own operations under a service approach that differs from traditional real estate management.
- We're determined to revolutionise housing and offer our customers more than just walls. With the new service model, we'll look after our customers even better than before, Sipola says.
SATO also succeeded in its environmental goals. Developing energy management processes for residential buildings, encouraging residents to save energy, switching to wind power and improving building automation systems paid off: paid off: specific electricity consumption went down by 1% and heat consumption by as much as 3.3%.
- We compare our sustainability work with the work of others in our field by participating in Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) annually, Sipola adds. - In the latest benchmark we renewed our Green Star rating. We ranked the best among five Nordic unlisted housing companies, and at the global level SATO was the ninth-best among the 65 participating housing investment companies.
- We also took a closer look at the social impacts of our operations last year, Sipola continues. - The employment impact of our entire supplier network is almost 3,300 full-time equivalents of employment and exceeds 3,400 when taking our own personnel into account - a bigger impact than we had previously estimated. For example, in renovation projects our operations have, in addition to the direct construction site impacts, also indirect impacts in fields such as the construction products industry and construction services.
This is the first time SATO's annual report is only published online and also serves as the sustainability report. If you would prefer to read the report on paper, you can print it out in full or compile a more compact document from the sections of your choice on PDF.
Read the SATO Annual report at http://reports.sato.fi/annualreport2016
For more information, please contact:
SATO Corporation Saku Sipola, President and CEO, p. +358 201 34 4001 and +358 40 551 5953
www.sato.fi/en SATO is one of Finland's leading rental housing providers. SATO's aim is to offer comprehensive alternatives in rental housing and an excellent customer experience. SATO holds roughly 25,300 apartments in Finland's largest growth centres and in St Petersburg.
In our operations, we promote sustainable development and initiative-taking, and work in open interaction with our stakeholders to create added value. We operate profitably and with a long-term view. We increase the value of our housing property through investments, divestments and repair work.
SATO Group's net sales in 2016 were €318.0 million, operating profit €267.2 million and profit before taxes €219.4 million. SATO's investment properties have a value of roughly €3.4 billion.
