CEO End-of-Year Greetings

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

I would like to extend wishes of peace and happiness to each of one you and your families for the festive season.

With all unprecedented events which have unfolded in 2020, and those which are currently ongoing in the world and in our region, making decisions is overwhelmingly complicated. This is because we are faced with uncertainty and ambiguity.

To fight uncertainty, we try to gather more information if available. But to make decisions when we do not know what are the possible outcomes, we need to have good values.

Our personal and professional lives are colliding and we are all going through some sort of life disruption right now, which we have to Adapt to Survive. In our professional life, when we are trying to navigate these disruptions, our corporate values are there to assist us. Our corporate values have this year been given the new acronym GREAT (Green, Responsible, Excellence, Adaptable and Trusted-Integrity) as a result of our 10 Year Strategic Planning 2020-30. Our values will guide our decision-making every step of the way during difficult and complicated times.

In this current context, we have to remain supportive of each other and have faith in our future. As a business, BIRGER. has navigated the past months well, but 2021 is expected to be a very difficult year globally and regionally, with regards to economical, financial, political, sanitary and security aspects.

As a responsible company, this year BIRGER. has decided not to organise its traditional end-of-year party, which I know is dear to many of you. However, in the face of uncertainty for the forthcoming year, we have to be morally supportive towards all those who are going through financial hardships due to Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, hence our decision not to organise our end-of-year party this year. 

As 2020 draws to an end, four employees are retiring from BIRGER. namely Farzana Keramuth, Patrick Badere, Saholy Razanajato and Louis Martial. They have each had long careers with BIRGER. of 37, 34, 31 and 24 years respectively. I take this opportunity to thank them for their years of service and wish them a happy retirement.

Your health as well as those of your families is important to us. This is why I remind you during the end-of-year festivities to continue to adhere to the sanitary measures imposed by the authorities and the World Health Organisation for the good of all of us.

Thank you to all of you who have worked very hard over this past year.

Please stay Secure and Safe with your families.

Wishing you and your families a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2021.

Jacques Harel
Chief Executive Officer

BIRGER.