Kristian Brok new COO as of January 2020 – new strategic orientation of Industrial Sector begins

• Industry expert with longtime experience takes on COO role
• First implementation steps of the new industrial rubber strategy focus on regional and application-related customer intimacy
• New industry segment “SemperSeal” created
• North American expansion will be pilot for local manufacturing and regional market development

Vienna, Austria, 20 December 2019 — Kristian Brok will complete the Executive Board of the Semperit AG Holding as Chief Operating Officer (COO) from January 2020. “We are very pleased that we were able to fill the position of Semperit’s Chief Operating Officer with a true specialist and industry insider,” says Peter Edelmann, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Semperit AG Holding.

Brok has worked for Semperit’s competitor Trelleborg for the past ten years and possesses more than 20 years of management experience in high specification manufacturing business. In his most recent position as member of the Executive Board for the division Trelleborg Sealing Solutions, he was responsible for the business unit Global Operations Elastomers with its headquarter in the United Kingdom. Polymer-based sealing solutions for mission-critical applications thus formed one of the focus areas in his career. At Semperit, he will utilize his industry and manufacturing knowledge extensively, and concentrate on the development of the Semperit Lean Programme as well as the supply chain management and the Mixing business.

Semperit to include four industrial rubber segments in future

After the restructuring and transformation process in the industrial sector has progressed very successfully and delivered a continuous increase in profitability over the past two years, the first steps of the new industrial rubber strategy are now being implemented. The Industrial Sector will therefore be organized in four instead of three segments going forward: The business units Profiles and Rubber Sheeting will be separated from the Semperform segment and operated as a segment of their own under the name SemperSeal from 1 January 2020. By contrast, Semperform will focus on handrails, sheave and bull wheel liners for ropeways, ski foils and Engineered Solutions (SES) in future.

To successively reduce Semperit Group’s high dependence on the European economic area, an expansion in North America is to be the first step. "We are expanding in one of the world’s largest economic zones by investing in local production. This is the first step of our focus activities, which will be accompanied by increased customer support in the region. We are striving for proximity to our customers to be able to serve markets faster and more effectively," says Dr Martin Füllenbach, Chief Executive Officer of Semperit AG Holding.

With the aim of identifying and developing new growth regions and industries, a new organizational unit, the Customer Excellence Center (CEC), is also being set up in order to focus more strongly on undeveloped industries, the digitization of the product portfolio and the analysis of further possible applications for Semperit's product range in future. Füllenbach: "We have by no means exhausted our opportunities to approach our customers with application-specific solutions, not only on a product-specific, but also on a regional basis.”

Various strategic options for the Medical Sector are currently under review by the Executive Board of Semperit AG Holding.

About Semperit

The publicly listed company Semperit AG Holding is an internationally-oriented group that develops, produces, and sells in more than 100 countries highly specialised rubber products for the medical and industrial sectors: examination and surgical gloves, hydraulic and industrial hoses, conveyor belts, escalator handrails, construction profiles, cable car rings, and products for railway superstructures. The headquarters of this long-standing Austrian company, which was founded in 1824, are located in Vienna. The Semperit Group employs around 7,100 people worldwide, including about 3,800 in Asia and around 900 in Austria (Vienna and production site in Wimpassing, Lower Austria). The Group has 14 manufacturing facilities worldwide and numerous sales offices in Europe, Asia, Australia, and America. In 2018, the group generated revenue of EUR 878.5 million and an adjusted EBITDA (without one-off effects) of EUR 50.3 million.