Koehler’s anniversary year, 2007, was a very successful one.We achieved the highest sales volumes, the greatest turnover and the best net result in our company’s entire 200-year history.
The second half of the year was especially strong and exceeded our expectations. At the end of March this year we were in a position to pay every full-time employee the € 900 profit-sharing bonus agreed upon and earned during 2007.
You will see in the annual survey in this review exactly what we achieved last year. With equity capital of € 190 million, Koehler is well equipped
to finance its continuing growth from its own resources. Changes in the markets – raw materials, energy, and also among our customers – meant there was little respite. We strove hard to secure and build upon our existing business alliances andto continue our cost-cutting programme.
The pleasing result of the first quarter 2008 demon strates that we have acted correctly and decisively. Sales and earnings continue to develop
positively.
The three divisions of Thermal Papers, Carbonless Papers and Euler Papers from our mill in Greiz achieved steady profits.
In our Fine Papers segment we are expecting the fruits of our FineTech 60 project (increasing sales to 60,000 tonnes per year medium-term) in the coming year, when we should see lasting satisfactory earnings.
In the field of decor papers we managed to improve the level of our machines’ capacity utilisation. However, the enormous price-pressure,
coupled with rising costs, is making things very difficult for us, especially in our Ettlingen factory, where we have experienced rising losses in spite of the cost-cutting steps we have taken. We are very busy working on a solution for the entire decor segment which will provide lasting security for the future.
In January of this year, the objectives of all of the Koehler Group’s business areas for the 2008 financial year were approved by the new board in conjunction with the division and area managers.
Discussions with the next level of management about the activities that need to be initiated are in full swing. We intend to take our employees,
and in particular our managerial staff, with us on the road to further success.
Adherence to our management principles is very important to us. A good atmosphere in the factories and in administration, mutual respect,
openness, fairness and trust are all needed if we are all to enjoy working at Koehler. It will be the work we put in, and our new ideas, with whichwe will, together, shape the future at Koehler.
Our Management Days in November last year and at the beginning of April 2008 produced some important insights and steps forward in the development of our corporate culture.
To finish off with, I would like to thank personally all of our employees and our business allies.
Since August last year, when I took over responsibility from my father on the board, they have demonstrated extraordinary trust in me. I have had many conversations in which these people have shared with me their personal experiences, and how they envisage the future working for and with Koehler.
The new team on the board, Werner Ruckenbrod, Bruno Schwelling and myself, will not betray your trust. We work very well and very closely
together. We are on the best possible course to continue utilising the strengths and dynamics of our family company to the good of Koehler’s
future, both as a dependable employer and as a steady partner to our business friends in more than 100 countries throughout the world.
Kai Furler,
Managing Director
