Our annual report is out – today

The annual report is a sort of a “scorecard” for how Wallenius Wilhelmsen performed during 2022. It contains a description of us as a company, a message from the board as well as a letter from the CEO called Words from CEO. It includes an extensive overview of our initiatives and performance within sustainability organized under the chapters called “the 4 Ps,” which are People, Planet, Prosperity and Principles of governance. And last but not least, it contains our aggregated financial results.

Words from CEO

In the Words from CEO, Lasse Kristoffersen summarizes the past year and his priorities:

- Our 2022 financial results were rock solid. They lay the foundation for a robust position leading the transformation of shipping and logistics.
- He is particularly proud of how you, our people, handled the disruptions we faced.
- He speaks about our joint mission: Driving our operations towards zero emission.”

Lasse’s key priorities going forward

Investors and financial analysts eagerly read annual reports. Lasse took the opportunity to reiterate key messages that all of you heard earlier this year when he presented the updated corporate strategy, “We make it happen.”

- Bring zero-emission service to customers by 2027
- Make Wallenius Wilhelmsen a data and technology-driven company
- Make every employee a rock star of their own career
- Make safety, compliance, diversity and inclusion our competitive advantage

The war in Ukraine

We cannot talk about 2022 without mentioning the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainians experience trauma and pain every day. As a responsible company, we quickly moved to ban cargo going to Russia and we rerouted cargo to avoid breaching international sanctions. We also decided to close our office in Russia, while taking care of our local team in the process. As a Norwegian company, we followed the measures decided by the Norwegian authorities.


Safety, safety, safety

Lasse committed to all stakeholders who closely follow Wallenius Wilhelmsen that “safety, security and compliance are at the top of my agenda, at the top of the management’s agenda, and at the top of everyone’s agenda.”

We should all ask the following questions: Do we have concerns? How do we perform? What can we do better? If we had an incident, what was the reason, what went wrong, what do we need to do differently to avoid this from happening again? Zero accidents will always be our goal.


Zero emission - right now

“Consumers understand that we all need to fight climate change, our customers understand that we urgently need to take action, and we are committed to bringing zero emission services to our customers and their customers. Man-made climate change is real, and we are here to make a difference.”

He repeated that we as a company need to significantly reduce our combined carbon footprint - this decade. “We will not invest in any new equipment unless it contributes to the net zero agenda. No industry can achieve zero emissions without zero emission logistics. We will shape the future, and we will lead the way.” An important piece of this ambition is that we will transition to biofuels this year. Digitalization and technology will also contribute to reducing emission.


More diversity and “be a rock star” needed

“Diversity is good for business, it is good for our people,” said Lasse who remains deeply committed to diversity in every way possible. “Equal opportunity for all independent of race, color, religion, gender, age, nationality, sexual orientation, disability, or any other status is a given.”

He ended his Words from CEO by saying: “We encourage all our employees to “Be a rock star” in their own career! We want to make a rock star of every employee by supporting them to realize their full potential, empower them through strong teams, and encourage them to drive innovation towards zero emission by challenging status quo in all aspects.”

Click here to read annual report 2022.