AmerisourceBergen 2011 Annual Report Download - page 3

A decade of delivering results
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I am pleased to report that AmerisourceBergen completed its first decade
with a strong performance in fiscal year 2011. As I begin my first full fiscal year as President
and Chief Executive Officer, I have been privileged to assume the leadership of an outstanding
and financially successful organization from my predecessor, R. David Yost.With the help of our
talented management team and the support of our Board of Directors, Dave did an excellent
job preparing the Company not only for the transition to new leadership following his retirement
in July of 2011, but also in laying the foundation for our future success in the next decade
and beyond. I would personally like to thank Dave for his many years of dedicated service
to AmerisourceBergen, his leadership in preparing the Company for future growth, and his
personal commitment to ensuring a smooth leadership transition.
I would also like to thank our associates, our senior management team,
and our Board of Directors for the support and counsel that they have
given me in my new role. I am very proud of AmerisourceBergen and
the healthcare services industry in which we participate. I am excited
about the opportunities that lie ahead, and I am very confident that we
have the management talent in place to maximize those opportunities
and to meet any challenges that we may face as we look ahead into
AmerisourceBergen’s second decade and beyond.
During our first decade, we achieved excellent financial results
while continuing to make significant investments and improvements
in our core businesses that have built a firm foundation for further
growth into our next decade. Over the course of our first
decade, we grew our earnings per share from continuing
operations at a compound annual growth rate of 17%,
improved our balance sheet and credit ratings, integrated
two large companies into a highly efficient distribution
network, built a market-leading specialty distribution
business, implemented a new enterprise resource planning
system, and delivered tremendous value to stockholders.
In our fiscal year 2011, we grew our earnings
per share 14%, increased our revenues, expanded
our operating margin and generated cash flow from
operations of $1.2 billion.We also increased our dividend
rate twice and repurchased $841 million of our common
stock in fiscal year 2011. Our corporate credit ratings
were upgraded by all three major credit rating agencies
in 2011. Performance in our two key growth areas,
generic pharmaceuticals and specialty distribution and
services, combined with our well-established operational
Steven H. Collis
President and Chief Executive Officer
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