This Newsletter edition marks one of the most significant events in the history of Davis and Shirtliff, inauguration of the new Distribution Centre at Tatu City. D&S faced the capacity dilemma of all growing companies as the Dundori Rd Head Office warehousing facility became increasingly unfit for purpose. This led to the birth of the Tatu project that since completion has lifted D&S to the next level providing much improved efficiencies and the capacity for considerable volume growth.

This impressive development was recently opened by my wife Christine and the project was managed by son Henry so to an extent it has been a family affair, though of course so many others have made huge contributions to make it a success. Particularly I would like to appreciate the many Supply and IT staff who have worked tirelessly on the move, the architects Boogertman & Partners for their striking design, the contractor Ark Construction for the speed and quality of their work and Steven Jennings, the visionary who conceptualised and is executing the Tatu City project.

The Tatu Distribution Centre is a major strategic investment by the D&S Group being the central stocking hub enabling hugely improved service levels to its wide regional operations as well as being the centre for development of the growing e-business. It will make a big contribution to the D&S Group's purpose of 'Improving Lives' through better access to the essential products and expertise that it supplies. We are all very proud of the result which we feel is a world class facility that represents the standards and aspirations of the D&S Group and look forward to
reaping the many benefits that this resource will no doubt bring.

We are now well into the new year and of course Covid remains with us, though we have been fortunate in Kenya with relatively lower disruption and infection levels due to, in no small part, good management by the Government. I feel the balance between lives and livelihoods has been well judged and hopefully as vaccines become available normality will return. D&S has been fortunate in that last year business levels held up and we took the opportunity to introduce several important initiatives, especially digitally, as well as continuing development of the Branch network and introducing several innovative new products. I feel that with the increased efficiencies from Tatu, our wide branch network and strong product
range and of course our dedicated staff, that we are well placed and I look forward to a much better 2021.