The Metro Group operates a German wholesale cash-and-carry business with a focus on food and consumer electronics. The Group’s 2012 report is comprised of two parts: the annual report and a slim booklet that looks in depth at one of their customers – the owner of a charming trattoria in Rome.
The main report uses a cased-in perfect bound cover with spot lamination. The cover features a fold out that provides at-a-glance information about the company as well as the contents page. This aids navigating the report’s 218-pages of information efficiently, as do the card stock tabbed pages and bookmark.
These in-store brochures make one other appearance – in the portraits of the management board, helping to link the company’s work to the people doing it.
Following this, the report adopts a serious tone, making effective use of uncoated stock and a mostly two-colour design for text and infographics. The text uses a single typeface in multiple weights and sizes and the infographics show a fine control of line weight and colour. Portraits in this latter section are black and white, inked illustrations.
This covers a singe day in the trattoria owner’s life, taking care to show customers, employees, scenes from the city and the owner at work. It’s a beautiful portrait of a small business and lovingly photographed. The booklet devotes a few pages at the end to talk about the various businesses that fall within Metro Group’s ambit.
