The Annual Report 2023-2024
This report covers the period 1 July 2023 – 30 June 2024 and sets out the key achievements and work areas of our association.
In addition to showcasing the significant achievements of Accord over the reporting period, this Annual Report focuses on the essential nature of the entire breath of hygiene, personal care and specialty products. In her letter this year, Accord’s Chair Tracey Raso highlights that front and centre for our industry is the positive impacts we have on people’s lives.
While acknowledging that over-regulation of low-risk products and certain unique Australian requirements that are not fit-for-purpose remain both a challenge and an opportunity for our sectors, the Report highlights that amid a stagnating economy, it’s time for a broader industry policy push aimed at barriers to innovation and business investment.
View the Report Highlights
Our Members
Accord’s Member companies are leading businesses ranging from large multinational firms to smaller Australian-owned enterprises; local manufacturers to product importers. Our valued Associate Members are companies that provide specific services and expertise for our industry.
Our Products
Our industry’s products are essential for everyday living. Each day across the nation in homes, public places, commercial premises, institutions, industry and agriculture, our industry delivers effective solutions that promote health protection, and add value, convenience and comfort to daily life.
Message from the Chair
Front and centre for our industry is the positive impact we have on people’s lives
In last year’s annual report, I stressed the critical importance of good governance and how this is embedded into the culture and performance of Accord and its member businesses. Reflecting on the challenging times we currently face, it is always helpful to pose that most fundamental question, “what is our purpose?”.
Hard-nosed, pragmatically inclined business leaders amongst us would likely answer promptly, “to deliver value via profits for our shareholders”. And in this regard, Accord’s related purpose would be to deliver value by fostering an enhanced industry reputation for its members.
But, is this the sum total of our purpose? I believe not.
Decades spent managing a business along with my five years chairing Accord have convinced me that, at the end of the day, everything ultimately boils down to having a positive impact on people. And that this is the purpose to which we should all aspire, as it holds the key to success.
Fortunately, having a positive impact on people’s lives is deeply embedded in the DNA of the many fabulous products our industry makes. Illustrating the multitudes of products our industry is responsible for is a helpful table in our most recent Accord-EY Economic State of the Industry Report, which lists over 150 individual product types. Each and every one has an essential function.
Social & Environmental Sustainability
Scaling positive impacts for people and planet through industry-led initiatives to foster social responsibility and environmental stewardship on material industry issues
Some key achievements for 2023-2024
Advocacy & Partnerships
Providing a credible, influential industry voice, visibly engaging in all relevant fora and with all relevant stakeholders, reinforcing the significant contribution of our industry to public health and personal wellbeing.
Some key achievements for 2023-2024
Member Value
Delivering indispensable services across the breadth of membership, extending the resources, reach an capacity of member businesses by building knowledge and connections
Some key achievements for 2023-2024
Industry Productivity & Innovation
Facilitating economic growth, employment and international trade by promoting efficient, best-practice regulation and global regulatory convergence based on sound science
Some key achievements from 2023-2024
Message from the Executive Director
Amid a stagnating economy, it’s time for a broader industry policy push aimed at barriers to innovation and business investment.
In last year’s annual report, I called for a renewed policy focus on our nation’s declining productivity. A call coinciding with the EY-Accord Hygiene, Personal Care & Specialty Products Economic State of the Industry Report, reconfirming our industry’s economic credentials as Australia’s 17th largest business sector.
In the period since, public and political attention has instead been on the cost-of-living crisis and ongoing stagnation within the national economy, rather than longer-term productivity reforms. That said, three important foundation stones for reform are in focus and will hopefully be meaningfully delivered on.
The first has been a focus on the need for greater competition, for example, through merger reforms. Our industry is replete with businesses of all sizes in healthy competition. However, upstream, downstream and sideways from hygiene, personal care and specialty product manufacturing and importation are several more-highly concentrated sectors. Retail, particularly the situation with Australia’s supermarket sector, stands out in this regard.
Energy policy and the transformation to a net-zero economy continue to occupy centre stage in policy development. However, electricity and gas costs for our manufacturing member businesses remain a persistent problem. As a reminder, gas is both a production fuel and a manufacturing feedstock for many businesses. Business certainty on energy policy remains paramount for both investors and manufacturers, meaning hyper-partisan, opportunistic politicisation of this vexing issue will always prove counterproductive.
