GS Connect Canada Newsletter - 1st Edition - Summer 2023

Interview with Stanislas de Gramont.

Chief Executive Officer of Groupe SEB

We want to share the interview that our CEO, Stanislas de Gramont, gave to the Groupe SEB France editorial team for the latest edition of the SEB World newsletter. To read the whole issue, we invite you to visit mySEB.

How do you feel after visiting the Group’s various sites and meeting the teams?

When taking on my new role it was important to me to meet the women and men who work for SEB! And what an adventure it was! Whether in France, the United States, Germany, Japan, Poland, Ukraine, China, Italy, Hong Kong or the United Kingdom, the teams showed the same enthusiasm, the same attachment to the Group and the same passion for innovation. As I often say, in these uncertain times our performance draws its strength from the unity of all our employees. And this was clear to me in the field! We had individual and sometimes group discussions about our roadmap and our strategic priorities. I returned with a wealth of ideas and opportunities to develop.

In the light of the energy transition, how has the Group succeeded in reducing its environmental footprint?

By using less energy and using it better! And our investments in this area are huge! Our goal over the next three years is to implement a global plan for reducing emissions at our industrial and logistics sites. Energy optimization is an automatic focus for processes and buildings. We’re also trying to measure our footprint more accurately. Lastly, using energy better not only involves speeding up the use of renewable energies at our facilities, but also and above all providing durable products, in other words reparable ones. This virtuous model for a circular economy is a true competitive strength!

Now more than ever, cybersecurity is a crucial issue for businesses. In March this year an incident was detected in one of the Group’s IT networks. What happened exactly?

Yes, a cyberincident was detected on March 14. After investigation, the IT teams confirmed an information system intrusion at one of our European subsidiaries. So far, even after extensive searches, we haven’t seen any data leaks or damage caused to the information systems. And that is excellent news. I would also like to thank all the teams involved. But everyone should be extremely vigilant. As we are increasingly computerized, we are also more exposed to the threat of cyberattacks. As in all large groups, we can only fight if we all act together. So, it’s essential to follow best practice in cybersecurity, especially with respect to phishing. You can find all these best practices on mySEB.

Brussels is currently considering prohibiting the use of “forever chemicals” (PFAS) after a proposal was tabled by five member states. What impact could that have for the Group?

I think it’s important to point out that none of Groupe SEB’s products contain PFAS considered harmful for health or the environment by health authorities. What’s more, the Group’s products are regularly analyzed by independent laboratories to ensure compliance with these commitments. Additionally, the Group’s position is based on a two-tier strategy. Firstly, to defend the use of PTFE and the know-how we have mastered for over sixty years, for our sector and our products; and secondly, to speed up the development of alternatives to PTFE by pursuing a proactive innovation policy, as we always have. We’re proud of our commitment to quality, innovation and sustainability, and we will continue to provide our customers with high-quality products while ensuring their safety and protecting our employee

Do you have anything to add?

The members of the Executive Committee and I would like to thank each and every one of you for your continued commitment to the Group. We know we can count on your agility and your passion for innovation to succeed in our shared mission.

2 New claims to solidify

*The NPD Group/Retail Tracking Service, Unit Sales, 12 Month Ending February 2023, Cookware excluding No Coating, National Brands excluding Private Label

*The NPD Group/Retail Tracking Service, Dollar Sales, 12 Month Ending February 2023, Stainless Steel Cookware, under National Brands excluding Private Label

Elite Clad launching at Canadian Tire!

Influencer Seeding Program - 3L Casserole Pan sent to influencers ahead at Canadian Tire launch. Posts will go live during first promo and will tag @LagostinaCanada and @Canadian Tire!

Media campaign with paid ads to awareness of product launch.

This year, we made this range a lot more colourful!

Our Most Versatile Cookware Ingenio is Now Available in 6 colours! Add a Pop of colour to your kitchen this summer!

Generating a lot of excitement for Ingenio range on social media and CRM. We also just went live with a DSP media campaign on Amazon.ca to support our upcoming PRIME DAY promos!

Generating a lot of excitement for Ingenio range on social media!

We also just went live with a DSP media campaign on Amazon.ca to support our upcoming PRIME DAY promos!

New Retailer Coming to Canada!

Rooms and Spaces is a new retailer that will begin opening doors in Canada in June 2023 with a grand opening coming later in the year.

The locations and team members will largely be comprised of former Bed Bath Beyond stores and employees however they have new financial backing and are looking to do things different!

Groupe SEB has been working to quickly build a relationship with the Rooms and Spaces team and secure a spot on the shelves.

Keep an eye out for a store in your area and if you happen to visit please take some pictures and share back with the Sales team!

New Support for our Gourmet Customers

Groupe SEB has partnered with independent reps to support with our Gourmet retail partners.

Savi Marketing in Quebec will support Eastern Canada Rob Lieberman in British Columbia will support Western Canada. Ontario will continue to be managed

A big thanks to Marketing, Customer Care and Consumer Services who have been working to get the reps trained and set up with tools to grow the Groupe SEB business!

The Shopping Channel Rowenta Show - Sept 1st with the talented Sabrina Coleman aired LIVE for two shows.

Rowenta Pure POP! and the new Steam Force was showcased for 30 min during a Garment segment and then continuing with another 30 min Home segment with the Rowenta Air Purifier and Uban Cool Fan.

Boat cruise June

To celebrate the arrival of summer on June 21st , Groupe SEB Canada hosted a company boat cruise by Toronto Island to all employees promoting the “One Team” culture. It was a day full of fun, laughter, food and above all great company.

Father´s Day

We celebrated Father’s Day with lunch and a foosball tournament for all the men in the office.

Sales Department

Our Sales Department kicked off our BBQ Challenge by hosting the first BBQ this summer. It was a huge success!

The Marketing Department hosted an End of Summer Luau BBQ filled with great food and

Marketing BBQ

Q2 Employee Recognition Program

Fernanda Inserra

It is with great pleasure that we recognize Fernanda Inserra as the employee of Quarter 2, 2023.

David is a HUGE help to all departments. He is always willing to help with a positive attitude. He is thorough and very friendly. He ships items no matter how tight the deadline is. It is important to recognize that getting products to the right places

His work ethic, professionalism, collaboration, hardworking and positive attitude hasn’t gone un-noticed. This recognition is very well deserved!

Fernanda has demonstrated her passion for being a team player by going above and beyond to help her peers. Over the past months, she was a great support to our new co-workers in the SDA segment. From supporting them through their orientation to guiding them through the various internal processes and workflows. Always making herself available to help when needed.

Fernanda has a positive attitude and is always willing to help, even if outside her area of responsibility. Dedicating her time, simply because she values her colleagues. This recognition is very well deserved!

Life-long learning culture

Starting October 2nd.

What is Great Place To Work?

GPTW is a survey that measures organizational culture, evaluates employees' experience, and works with organizations to help them become great places for everyone to positively impact well-being at work, economic performance, and society.

Why is the survey important?

The survey is important because it provides valuable feedback from our employees to keep improving on the things that work today and to work on what we could do better to become the best place to work that we can be.

How it works?

1 2 3

All employees will receive a survey sent by Great Place To Work.

You will have two weeks to answer it. GPTW deals with all answers with confidentiality and anonymity.

When and who is involved?

All permanent employees are invited to participate. The survey will take place from October 2nd to the 20th.

They will give us back the global results but not individual responses.

What is the Great Place To Work® model?

Financial growth

Innovation Values

Developing the potential of each individual

Trust

Leadership effectiveness

The company's values and effective leadership create a culture of trust and inspire people to develop their full potential, driving innovation and financial growth for the organisation, which can then strengthen its positive societal impact.

The Great Place To Work® model uses a two-pronged approach to define a great place to work:

From the employees' perspective, it is a company where they trust their management, feel proud of what they do and appreciate the people they work with. This approach emphasises three key relationships, with management, colleagues and the work itself. This model is broken down into five dimensions: credibility, respect, fairness, which is the relationship of trust between employees and managers, pride and friendliness. This approach allows us to understand the experience of employees within their organisation.

From an organisational & management point of view, it is a company that achieves its objectives, with employees who give their best and work together as a team or a family - all in a climate of trust. This definition refers to 9 key action levers that the company and its management can act on in order to improve the experience of employees in the company and thus contribute to its overall performance.

What is the Great Place To Work® methodology for evaluating organisations?

All employees are invited to complete the Trust Index© survey (60 closed questions, 2 open questions, and 8 demographic information), a questionnaire based on the Great Place To Work® Model© methodology. Only companies that achieve an average positive response rate of 65% or more on all questions are eligible for Great Place To Work® certification.

To apply for the Best Workplaces Award, companies must also identify all of their managerial practices via the Culture Audit© structured around 5 key dimensions: trust, individual potential, values, leadership effectiveness and innovation. This file is evaluated by Great Place To Work® on the basis of an international rating grid. The Culture Audit© score and the Trust Index© score are used to establish the final Best Workplaces ranking.

Why should I fill in this questionnaire?

This questionnaire is a unique opportunity to make your voice heard at the highest level of the company by answering questions related to the quality of the relationship with your managers, your colleagues and your company. In addition, the open-ended questions allow you to highlight the main strengths and areas for improvement that you perceive in your company.

Can I fill in the survey in several rounds?

Yes, you can fill in the questionnaire in several sessions. In order to stop a session, you have to close the Internet browser. To restart it, "click" on the link in the e-mail. You will be automatically directed to the last page filled in.

Who is affected by the survey?

At a minimum, all employees with more than one month's seniority, regardless of their status and working hours, are concerned by the survey.

Managers and management are invited to respond to the survey.

How are the anonymity and confidentiality of my answers ensured?

To protect the confidentiality of your responses, if there are fewer than 5 respondents, your data will be aggregated with a larger group or it will be hidden. Great Place To Work® France is committed to protecting the privacy of each respondent. The ability of Great Place To Work® France to provide management with areas for improvement depends on the return rate and the sincerity of the responses.

This is why Great Place To Work® France attaches great importance to protecting the confidentiality of your responses. No one from your company will ever be able to see your individual responses.

No cookies or other client-side caching is used in the survey. This means that your responses cannot be retrieved by a third party.

However, your browser's normal "backspace" functionality may allow your responses to be viewed if you did not close the browser window after submitting the survey (or decided to finish later). To protect the confidentiality of your responses, Great Place To Work® France recommends that you close your browser window after leaving the survey management site.

Great Place To Work® is bound by the Data Security and Confidentiality Charter and will not provide any of the information provided to a third party.

How do I access the questionnaire?

Questionnaire administered via an e-mail invitation

You must use the link provided to you by e-mail, which is strictly personal. It cannot be transferred.

In general, the validity period of the survey is 2-3 weeks from the day you received the e-mail containing the link to access the survey.

If you are within the time limit, be sure to click directly on the link in the e-mail that was sent to you personally for the current survey by Great Place To Work® France or copy and paste it into your browser window.

If you have difficulties with the TLS protocol of Internet Explorer, please try with another browser (Google Chrome, Firefox, ...).

If you are not in one of these cases, please contact the survey administrator at the following address: survey@greatplacetoworkfrance.com

Questionnaire administered via a URL link

To log in to the questionnaire via a URL link, simply enter the password that was sent to you, case sensitive. Make sure that you enter the URL correctly in the browser. If you are unable to log in, please contact the survey administrator at survey@greatplacetoworkfrance.com

What does "management" refer to in the questions?

"Management" refers to the entire managerial line, in other words the Directorate in the broad sense.

When are the results communicated to the company?

After the survey is completed, Great Place To Work® France sends the results to the company. It is then up to each company to decide how to present the results internally.

What is the minimum participation rate expected to validate the survey?

In order to participate in the Great Place To Work® France recognition programme, we require a minimum level of participation from participating companies. This minimum participation rate varies according to the number of employees in the company at the time of the survey.

For example, for a company with 300 employees, Great Place To Work® France requires a minimum return rate of 56.33%. For a company with 50 employees, it is 90%.

This minimum participation rate must be reached to ensure the statistical reliability of the results and to be eligible for the recognition programme.

The average return rate for the 2021 winners is 82%, proof of the strong mobilisation of employees.

What is the level of accuracy of the survey?

If your organisation participates in the Great Place To Work® Awards, the minimum return rate we require allows for a 95% confidence interval and a margin of error of +/- 5 points. This means that if we were to repeat the same survey 100 times, the results would, in 95 cases out of 100, be equal to the results of the first survey within +/- 5%. This is a high level of accuracy for opinion surveys.

How does Great Place To Work® France ensure that employees were able to answer the questionnaire freely, without influence from their company?

At the end of the survey, Great Place To Work® France checks with each respondent whether they were able to answer the questionnaire freely. This question is asked at the end of the questionnaire. If employees feel that they were not able to answer the questionnaire freely, we invite them to provide their contact details so that we can discuss their feelings in a strictly anonymous manner with the employer.

How can I contact Great Place To Work?

If you have any questions, you can contact the Administrator's Department at any time by e-mail: survey@greatplacetoworkfrance.com or by telephone: 01 44 83 87 10.

New Partners

Best Wishes for our colleagues

June July

August

September

¡Happy

Work Anniversary!

Tanya Murdoch

Deborah Lemay

Agata Matyja

Amy Westcott

June 11

July

July 1

July 13

July 23

June August

Shoaib Muhammad

Muhammad Ahmad

Christina Cummings

August 23

August 25

August 29

11 years

5 years

8 years

10 years

2 years

15 years

12 years

September

Jasmin Dugal

Rebecca Raghubeer

Craig Lauritzen

Koulla Rytwinski

Munmun Das

Meredith Smith

Shafiq Omerzay

September 4

September 7

September 8

September 12

September 12

September 15

September 16

21 years

2 years

36 years

22 years

7 years

8 years

5 years