Annual Report 2023

Our fundamentals

“Connecting – today and beyond” is the cornerstone of everything we do. Our world is based on connections between humans, places, and systems. Connections are essential to the functioning of our society – and our customers make them happen by transporting data and power in networks. Our strategic focus makes it possible for humans everywhere to stay in touch with one another, to be mobile and safe, and contribute to a more sustainable world. As a company, we engage with our employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers, authorities, the financial community, and others. Each stakeholder group has its own requirements and expectations of our organisation. With “Connecting – today and beyond,” we articulate a vision that precisely addresses our stakeholders’ needs and our commitment to meeting these needs today and well into the future.

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Our purpose

Our purpose, “We help customers bring people closer together,” expresses how HUBER+SUHNER positively contributes to global issues in a variety of markets with often-invisible products that, despite their sometimes small size, ensure highest precision and connectivity. Considering the social and environmental impacts, we are fully dedicated to going far beyond solely selling products or solutions: We are our customers’ reliable partner, helping them keep their networks running with stable and applicable connectivity solutions that contribute to personal security, seamless communication, environmentally friendly mobility, and responsible business conduct. HUBER+SUHNER constantly monitors market trends and competition and drives innovative connectivity solutions that meet customers’ needs. As an employer, we strive to create a workplace where employees can make an impact and experience how meaningful their contributions are. This is how we help people connect with one another every second, every minute, every day: Connecting – today and beyond.

Our guiding principles

Our values and leadership principles guide us as we pursue our purpose, reminding us every day of what is important when interacting with one another and with external stakeholders and of our aspirations in terms of behaviour and attitude. They provide direction on how to succeed in a continuously evolving business environment.

Read more about our values.

Strategic focus

HUBER+SUHNER builds its sustainable growth on a diversified but focused business approach with market verticals which form a highly attractive portfolio. They can be grouped in three different states of maturity : core markets and focused market verticals, growth initiatives, and opportunities with growth potential.

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Core markets are the basis of today’s business. Their turnover is crucial to secure the company’s current size and setup. Our aim is to be in attractive core markets which allow HUBER+SUHNER to use all its strengths to maintain a strong position. Their contributions are essential to reach today’s goals and fund the growth initiatives.

Our five core markets are:

Growth initiatives have been identified based on their potential for significant sales potential, profitable growth, and their strategic fit:

Focused market verticals include a range of highly attractive niche applications in smaller-sized markets such as:

Opportunities with growth potential are attractive business ideas at an early stage. The company identifies these business ideas by following megatrends associated with basic human needs and then providing connectivity solutions that help satisfy those needs. The business ideas either develop into growth initiatives or interesting niche businesses or – if the opportunity is not sustainable – they are not further pursued. Therefore, the company strives to always have a broad range of such opportunities in the pipeline.

Our ambition

We have three strengths that form our ambition and which navigate us in our daily work and interaction with our customers:

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Three strengths form our ambition:

1. Leader in technology and innovation

Mastery of the applicable technologies and the necessary innovative strength are essential to open new markets and defend existing markets. At HUBER+SUHNER, innovation takes place in three areas to ensure a high degree of differentiation of the company’s solutions: exploring new technologies and business fields, developing new product generations and applications, and improving existing products in terms of cost and performance.

2. Operational excellence

Through operational excellence spanning production processes as well as logistics and the supply chain, HUBER+SUHNER sustains and extends its market positions. By continuously optimising our operations and entire supply chain, we ensure a superior end-to-end customer experience, which is essential to establish long term partnerships with customers. Our production sites’ geographical proximity to key customers is better for the environment due to the shorter transport distances in outbound logistics and at the same time is a competitive advantage.

3. Strong position in target markets

HUBER+SUHNER uses its strong position, long-lasting relationships, and solid reputation in existing market verticals to tap into new, related markets. We capitalise on our innovative strength to offer customers added value while supporting them in becoming relevant market players.

Responsibility

Our efforts and plans for advancing our strategy and performance are linked to our commitment to conducting business responsibly with regard to our material sustainability topics:

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Our continuous journey and commitments are to improve our economic performance and to analyse and transform existing business and production processes. The topic of product and transport packaging is also part of operational excellence. Here, the focus of HUBER+SUHNER is on reusable packaging and packaging materials with a low environmental and a low carbon footprint.

We have set ambitious goals based on our sustainable business model and we regularly measure our performance. Only by further embedding and connecting our ambitious sustainability and business goals on management level and with every single employee, can we work towards becoming a truly sustainable business. Read more in our Non-financial Report.

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The HUBER+SUHNER Group in brief
Corporate Governance