I would like to welcome you to this new year 2025. Many of you have no doubt spent the holidays with family or friends and are returning to work with renewed energy. I would like to thank everyone who reliably operated our production facilities between the years and during the holidays.

Together, we are entering an anniversary year in 2025. We are celebrating the 35th anniversary of ORAFOL, the 30th anniversary of the first foundation stone being laid here at our headquarters and the 20th anniversary of our American headquarters in Black Creek, which was built in 2005.

These milestones are cause for celebration and the associated success of ORAFOL is a source of confidence. In addition, we will be starting production in our new production area in Hall 10 in the coming months, thus gradually integrating the largest single investment in the company's history into our value chain. The employees who have been familiarizing themselves with the new machines in recent weeks are pioneers in this respect. I would like to thank you - for your curiosity and your courage to try something new and develop within our company. In connection with the commissioning of Hall 10, I would particularly like to highlight our entry into the market for spectrally selective solar protection films this year.  I would like to thank everyone involved in the project for the great discipline with which you are tackling the respective tasks at our headquarters.

In addition, there are numerous other developments - in digitalization, energy efficiency, processes - that you will be supporting in your specialist areas or have initiated yourselves. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all project managers and executives. Your creativity, your achievements and your commitment as role models are indispensable.

In my employee address at the end of the year 2024, I invited all of you to work together to implement our vision - despite the challenging environment. I reaffirm this at the start of the new year.

I assure that I will continue to advocate for significantly greater planning security and significantly better framework conditions for industrial SMEs in Germany in 2025. Against this backdrop, the election of the members of the German Bundestag on February 23, 2025 affects our headquarters to the highest degree. I would therefore be delighted if you took part in this election, which could mark a new beginning in German economic policy.

Thank you for your trust in our family business. I look forward to working with you, as we do every year, true to our claim: A strong presence in Brandenburg, and around the world!

Dr. Holger Loclair
Chairman & CEO