FOREWORD BY THE MANAGEMENT BOARD

I would like to start with the most important foundation of our collaboration: our values. In a participative process involving all areas of the company, we defined four corporate values that König + Neurath stands for: partnership, reliability, dynamism and authenticity. In a total of 145 workshops, the values were discussed within the company and underpinned with content - every colleague was integrated. The values process has sensitized us all to positive cooperation and significantly strengthened our sense of unity.

In 2022, our completely modernized showroom in Karben - our WORK.CULTURE. CAMPUS - was completed and presented to all colleagues with a big spring party. We presented our new environment for modern office worlds to around 800 partners in the year of the opening.

Another highlight was the introduction of Eintracht Frankfurt licence products in 2022, which have been available to order in our K+N online shop ever since. Automation was further advanced in our production: There are now 21 driverless transport systems ensuring the efficient movement of goods in our production halls. Of course, everything is carried out in compliance with the highest safety standards - our occupational health and safety management system was certified in accordancewith the international ISO 45001 standard in 2022.

Let‘s take a look at the past year - the year 2023: The fact that people are at the heart of all business activities became clear this year. Our long-standing and highly valued colleague, Works Council Chairman and Supervisory Board member Frank Henn passed away unexpectedly and far too early for all of us. After 34 years at König + Neurath, we have lost Frank Henn as a valuable advisor, far-sighted discussion partner and inspiring personality. During these difficult days, it became clear how strongly anchored the cohesion and the WE feeling is in the company.

Last year, my former colleague on the Executive Board, Hartmut Hagemann, handed over the chairmanship of the Executive Board to me. Mr. Hagemann made a significant contribution to building and strengthening our market position and assumed responsibility in difficult economic times.

A special highlight of 2023 was definitely our „K+N LIVE“ convention, where we welcomed around 500 guests to our WORK.CULTURE.CAMPUS. The atmosphere and feedback were great and motivate us for similar events in the future.

We have also made further progress in our production: be it through the integration of robotics in our production processes to increase efficiency or through optimizations in our powder systems, which have enabled us to significantly reduce our natural gas consumption - and were also awarded the BESSER LACKIEREN AWARD 2023. In addition, our paint shop was completely modernized. Thanks to a process changeover, we have achieved considerable energy savings and a significant reduction in solvent emissions.

We are particularly proud of a refurbishment project with our customer F. Hoffmann-La Roche from Switzerland: F. Hoffmann-La Roche decided to simply have their existing König + Neurath furniture refurbished instead of buying new furniture. In a great project, we were able to thoroughly overhaul 850 partitions and implement an innovative fabric and color concept. Sustainable action is not difficult at all - you just have to decide to do it.

I am very proud that we have been able to record great successes over the past two years despite the difficult economic conditions and that König + Neurath is continuing to make progress. We are very much looking forward to the upcoming projects: for more efficiency, a real circular economy and, very importantly, value-based cooperation.