The AGM held on 27 April was a major event. Hera was one of the few Italian listed companies that again allowed its shareholders to be physically present at “Spazio Hera”, where the Meeting took place, even though this year, following the measures to avoid the pandemic, it was still possible to adopt a virtual format, with the vote expressed exclusively by proxy.
Promotion of a genuine and direct shareholder participation in the decisions on the Company’s life and future reveals a spirit reflected in all aspects of Hera’s history: from its commitment to the value creation for all stakeholders – trustfully executed, as 2022 results prove – to the way governance takes shape.
This year, shareholders have also appointed a total of 15 Directors, who will lead Hera over the next three years, demonstrating to embrace the previous Board of Directors’ guidance on the composition of the new administrative body.

Hera has achieved uninterrupted growth since inception in 2002 to date.

Embracing from the very beginning an innovative multi-business and multi-stakeholder model has proved to be a winning choice. Over time, Hera has executed a clear growth strategy, based on two pillars: on one hand fuelling organic development through the deployment of significant technical investments and the expansion of market shares in liberalised businesses, and on the other hand expanding externally through targeted M&A operations, always effectively integrated.    
Leveraging on such approach, consistently applied over time, Hera has achieved great results even in the most challenging scenarios, creating value for the benefit of all stakeholders.

Hera enjoys a leading competitive position in the Waste business in Italy. The new Plan to 2026 outlines a clear strategy: to leverage the Group’s existing widespread plant base and its ability to intercept annual waste volumes of over 6.7 million tonnes to increase its competitive advantage.

The idea is set in a context that is favourable from several points of view: the issue of protecting the environment through proper waste treatment and disposal is felt by citizens and is a legal responsibility for the companies that generate the waste. Both the new tariff framework for the treatment of municipal waste and the Italian government’s PNRR contain mechanisms that incentivise investment in the business, while the market price-trend has been positive for six years.

With the aim of addressing the challenge of the energy transition, Hera is looking for new skills through the recruitment of 300 resources that will be cultivated in a productive and stimulating workplace. 

The process of selection and onboarding of these new resources that will be dedicated to the energy transition stands out for its innovative approach. In addition to accurately assessing the characteristics of the individual against those required by the role, such process provides the candidates with well-structured induction paths from the very first activities of training and induction.

For the second year in a row, Hera took first place in the ETicaNews ranking, which assesses the degree of integration of ESG policies of the top 100 Italian listed companies, with the aim of constructing the Integrated Governance Index (IGI).
Effectively and according to objective criteria, the IGI expresses the position of a company in ten key sustainability aspects that remain stable in the various editions and in an extraordinary area of investigation, which for 2022 was that of ESG Identity extended to the supply chain.
Hera took first place achieving an overall score of 82.35/100: a result that places the Group a good 20 points above the average of Italian blue chips.

Since its inception, Hera has had “Health and Safety in the workplace” among its founding principles. For this reason, over time it has defined specific strategies and implemented improvement plans that proved to be effective, as shown by the positive performance recorded over the years.

Especially in 2021, Hera achieved a significant decrease both in the frequency of accidents and in the number of days the employees were absent from work, reaching the best results in its history.

Hera’s strategy in the plastic recycling is crystal clear: strengthen its leadership through the expansion in new market segments, with the aim to transform rigid plastics in addition to the flexible ones that Aliplast currently treats and, at the same time, approach new business niches, as in the case of carbon fibres.

Aliplast Group – with an EBITDA doubling in 2021 vs. 2020 and reaching 36.5 million euro – will be a key driver of the 122-million-euro growth at EBITDA level that the Group targets in the Waste area by 2025.

The energy efficiency business is experiencing an unprecedented expansion, given the incentive systems that the Italian government is providing, mostly in the private condominium market.

Hera has always been active in the market for private residential customers, large condominiums. Since the introduction of the 110% ecobonus, the Group has continued to position itself as a leading operator with consolidated experience in energy requalification work.

The findings from the 2020 survey indicate that clients are generally “delighted” with the services they receive from Hera. Even in a difficult year, marked by the pandemic, Hera has found ways to interpret and anticipate the expectations of its customers. The digitalization has continuously enriched the customer experience, while new offers have paid increasing attention to the environment and the specific individual needs.

The good image that Hera has built over time – through the development of customer-centric offers – leads to high levels of satisfaction, favouring a virtuous circle. This promotes cross-selling, word of mouth and loyalty.

One of the typical features of companies that are leaders in their industry is the ability to consolidate their leadership over time through innovation.

Hera nurtures that intangible asset, the innovation, through continuous investment, by leveraging some specific strengths.

While we take a closer look at some of the new projects Hera is working on, we try to understand what are the specific factors that drive the Group’ s success in innovation, through some questions that we put to Mr. Salvatore Molè, Central Innovation Director of Hera Group.