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Consolidated Financial Report |
DIRECTORS’ REPORT
2014 Annual Report
Prysmian Group
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continued on the project to increase the size of preforms.
Lastly, in South America, the Telecom plants in Sorocaba
(one former Prysmian, the other former Draka) completed
their rationalisation aimed at consolidating production of
optical cables and Multimedia & Specials.
IT, R&D
Some 12% of capital expenditure was devoted to the ongoing
upgrade and development of information systems and to
research and development (the portion of expenditure not
expensed to income). In particular, there was continued
spending on rolling out the "SAP Consolidation" project,
aimed at standardising the information system in all the
Group's operations over the next few years: in 2014, the new
ERP system was rolled out to the Netherlands, Canada and
the United States, only partially.
Base-load
Capital expenditure on structural maintenance work
accounted for about 10% of the total, in line with previous
years.
Other
This category (accounting for 28% of total expenditure)
contains three investments of particular importance for the
Group: first and foremost, the work to upgrade the "Cable