The Chairman, Christopher Kemball, is responsible for ensuring that there is ongoing and effective communication with shareholders. If shareholders have any concerns, which contact through the normal channels with the Chief Executive, the Finance Director or the Chairman have failed to resolve, or for which contact is inappropriate, then the Senior Independent Director is available to them. To that end, both the Chairman and the Senior Independent Director make themselves available, when requested, for meetings with investors on issues relating to the group's governance and strategy.

During 2009 more than 65 separate meetings and telephone conference calls were held with major shareholders, by either or both the Chief Executive and the Finance Director. As expected, these focused primarily on the group's trading operations and immediate prospects. Where significant views were expressed, either during or following the meeting via our brokers, these were recorded and circulated to all directors. All the directors at the time of the 2009 Annual General Meeting attended that meeting.

During 2010 the shareholder engagement programme included  an investor meeting on 2nd November 2010. In addition, the Chairman held a dinner on 7th December 2010 for investors to meet the Non-Executive Directors.