Code of Governance

Responsibility

The positions of Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Board are ensured by family members. The operational management of the Group is entrusted to an external manager, who assumes full responsibility. The greatest vigilance is given to preserving the Group’s heritage, its human, entrepreneurial and ethical values.

Nuture

Clients, colleagues and the general public are active concerns of Maus Frères SA. A “People First” policy governs commercial decisions. Training, career planning and social infrastructures have been part of Maus Frères SA Human resources programmes for decades.

Humanitarian causes, public health issues such as AIDS, and the arts (among many others) have long been on the list of Maus Frères SA beneficiaries. A founding member of the PHILIAS Foundation (a Swiss CSR institution), Maus Frères SA is committed to practicing the principles of corporate Social responsibility.

Maus Frères SA engagement in social welfare activities are always carried out in utmost discretion.

Core comptence

Retail Distribution has been and always will be the main Maus Frères SA focus. Retail Distribution is what Maus Frères SA companies do best. Over a century of experience in the activity is Maus Frères’s finest calling card.

MANAGEMENT MERITOCRACY

Maus Frères SA by-laws dictate that the Cahirman of the Board, as well as certain members of the board, be family members. Strict selection criteria and procedures ensure that nominations are based on competence. At the time of nomination, family members should have had several years of, and extensive, field experience.

Non-family members in key management positions are chosen with the same astringency as top management. Candidates may or may not come from within the group, but all share two main characteristics : excellence and a reputation in their specific field.

EXPANSION AND DIVERSIFICATION

The founders of Maus Frères SA – as their entrepreneurial fathers before them – never stopped looking to expand. Each prospective location/acquisition was evaluated as a strategic supplement/complement to the “corporate whole”.

Maus Frères’s present harmonised organisational structure reflects the founders’ commercial mind-set. Each Maus Frères SA company represents a separate vital sector in retail distribution. Sales and operations sites are chosen within a framework of streamlined management.

Future acquisitions are evaluated according to the same “lean and mean” standards.

CHECK AND BALANCE

Maus Frères SA has established strict procedures to ensure clear lines of command and an effective decision-making process. Decisions are taken on a collegial basis. The Maus Frères SA CEO reports to a Board and must get Board approval for all major decisions. In addition, the Board has set up the appropriate ad-hoc committees to fully exercise its functions. Reputed external advisers are part of the Maus Frères SA control process.