2023: A Year in Review

This year, we have adopted a digital-first approach to our reporting. While the Financial Statements remain a core component of our reporting suite, we have also introduced a simplified format with summary highlights in a Year in Review document. Both the highlights document and the full statement of accounts is available to download below.

Chairman's Statement

I am pleased to introduce our annual report and financial statements for 2023. The past 12 months have presented a challenging and unpredictable global business environment, with the backdrop of tragic conflicts in several parts of the world, combined with significantly elevated levels of inflation and consequent interest rate management action from central banks across the Globe. The fact that Thomas Miller has delivered a strong performance for its clients and shareholders in this environment is testimony to the strength of the business and the commitment of colleagues all around the world.

The profit for 2023 was £21.9 million. There are two elements to this: profit from our regular business operations and profit from some one-off items. Leaving aside the one-off items, the increase in profitability from our regular business operations in 2023 is welcome and it is pleasing that the Group has returned to a position where it has met, and indeed exceeded, the profit target for the year. We can be confident that the hard work undertaken in the last few years has paid off and the business has a strong core from which to grow.

Hugh has set out details of the performance of our different divisions and businesses in his CEO statement and I would like to mark the contributions from across the Group to our overall company results. Our strength is derived from both the breadth of the markets and services our businesses operate in and our shared focus on delivering market-leading services.

People and Culture

The golden thread that runs throughout all Group businesses is the contribution of our people. I am very proud of the 900 plus individuals who I can call colleagues. We now work from 31 offices around the world. Each colleague in the Group shares a commitment to excellence and this is the foundation of our company. We each take responsibility for nurturing the unique culture that has developed over the 139 years since Thomas Robson Miller first started the company that now takes his name. Our culture is not just one of excellence but one of development, growth, and innovation, for colleagues as much as for the business as a whole.

We recognise that the Thomas Miller Group is fundamentally a people-led business with colleagues who bring significant energy, expertise and commitment to their work. The Board and senior management are committed to ensuring that our working environment and our offer to colleagues enable us to attract and retain the talented people we need. I am determined that the Group provides stimulating and rewarding roles and future opportunities to every colleague throughout the business. Hugh details some of our specific initiatives and the positive results of our annual employee engagement survey in his statement.

One way that employees can share in the success of the Group is through the employee share schemes. We encourage staff to purchase shares to both provide an incentive to contribute to the Group’s continued growth and success and to benefit from a share of that success.

Communities

Last year marked five years since we launched our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme, ‘Be the Difference’. The programme formalised what has been a long-term commitment to working with and supporting the communities around the world in which both the Group and our partners operate. ‘Be the Difference’ represents another way in which we foster the special Thomas Miller culture and ethos. A major strand of ‘Be the Difference’ is our collaboration with a corporate charity partner. We aim to work with a charity partner that shares the vision and the passion of our company and our staff for delivering sustainable beneficial change for global societies.

From 2018 to 2021, our first charity partner was Mercy Ships. During this partnership, Thomas Miller and our staff donated more than £200,000 to support its work deploying hospital ships to some of the most deprived parts of the world. These ships brought life-saving and enhancing medical treatment to thousands of people in need, with our partnership supporting projects on the hospital ships and in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2021, we asked our staff to select our second corporate charity partner and our partnership with Street Child began the following year. Street Child wishes to see all children safe, in school and learning. Its focus is on low-income countries and emergency situations. During the first year of our partnership with Street Child, Thomas Miller donated £90,500 towards some vital projects, including in Somaliland, Ukraine, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Our staff, entirely through their own efforts, have raised more than £50,000 for Street Child over the last two years. When combined with corporate donations, the total Thomas Miller donation to the charity reached £170,000. Our final corporate donation of the two-year partnership was a £50,000 contribution in December 2023, which has been allocated across three countries of Street Child’s operations – Afghanistan, Nepal and Somalia.

We are looking forward to continuing our strong tradition of working with charities with our new partner, St Mungo’s. With the completion of the partnership period with Street Child, staff were given the chance to choose the next charity partner. Through a series of votes, colleagues first chose to focus our corporate charity efforts on the cause of homelessness and then voted for St Mungo’s from a shortlist of charities working to support homeless people. Established in 1969, St Mungo’s ambition is to end rough sleeping by 2026, by focusing on addressing the issues people experiencing homelessness face to help them move away from the streets. Their vision is that everyone has a place to call home and can fulfil their hopes and ambitions.

I am delighted that the commitment to giving back to the communities we work in extends throughout the business. Last year, many colleagues took advantage of the three days of volunteer leave we offer, some as individuals and many as teams coming together to tackle a specific challenge. In total, 75 volunteer days were utilised across the Group - a number that I hope to see increase in 2024.

Environmental, Social and Governance

2023 saw the publication of our first ever Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report. In his foreword to the 2024 report, Hugh explains the importance of recognising that our success is not solely measured by financial performance but also by our impact on the environment, the wellbeing of our employees and our contributions to society. Such themes have for a long time been embedded in our cultural DNA and indeed that of the mutual clients we serve.

The ESG Report outlines some important commitments for us over the coming year. These touch on the five pillars of our ESG strategy: Our People, Our Company, Our Community, Our Planet and Our Marketplace and include commitments to revised recruitment practices and developing our diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work.

At Thomas Miller, we believe in and understand the value of DEI as not only ensuring a fair and equitable workplace and representing the communities we work in and serve, but also for the importance of utilising the skills and talents of all of society.

 

As part of our ongoing commitment to developing our DEI approach, we welcomed Commodore Mel Robinson (retired) to speak with our Executive Committee about leadership in early 2024. Mel was the Commander of the Maritime Reserves until her retirement last summer and has led on key DEI initiatives across the Reserves and Royal Navy. Our leadership learned a lot from her that we will consider for our business and people.

Our Board

The Thomas Miller Board is a crucial source of advice, challenge and insight, especially amid uncertainty and turmoil. I want to thank our Non-Executive Directors for their commitment and contributions through 2023. The work of the Board is often invisible, but we should not underestimate the importance of the ideas and perspectives that its members offer in the development and guiding of our strategy.

I want to pay tribute to Paul Trickett, who sadly passed away at the end of August 2023. Paul initially joined Thomas Miller in 2013 as a Non-Executive Director of Thomas Miller Investment before joining the Thomas Miller Holdings Board in 2015, serving as Senior Independent Director since 2018. We are incredibly fortunate to have benefited from Paul’s wise counsel and constructive challenge over the last 10 years. He will be missed by us all.

James Quin joined the Thomas Miller Holdings Board in early January 2024. James, a Chartered Accountant by training, was most recently Group Chief Financial Officer at Saga PLC and brings many years of experience within the insurance and consultancy sectors to the Group. James will take over as Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee from the current Chair, Bob Cowdell, on 1 July 2024.

At our AGM, Markos Nomikos will join the Board as the representative director of the UK Club, replacing Dr Grahaeme Henderson OBE. I would like to extend my thanks to Grahaeme for his valuable contributions during his tenure. I look forward to working with Markos, James and Bob and the executive members of the Board in the coming year.

While on the subject of Boards, I would like to thank the Chairs and Directors of the mutual businesses we manage for their support in this year and more widely. As I have said before, the Clubs are at the heart of what we do and the Board of Thomas Miller Holdings recognises and appreciates the strong working relationships that underpin our shared undertaking in discharging the Clubs’ missions and business plans. We do not take these relationships for granted.

Looking Ahead

I would like to end by saying that, in 2024, the Board will agree a new vision for the future of Thomas Miller. Much has been learnt from experience in implementing recent corporate plans and we will take the lessons learned, combine them with the needs of our various businesses and set a course that will guide the Group in the next five or so years. I look forward to reporting to you on this next year.

 

Charles Fenton
Chairman, Thomas Miller Holdings