Newsletter 1/2010 | 01 Dear Shareholders, Customers and Business Partners ‘Vision for Automation’ has been a central guideline of elexis AG’s philosophy since the Company‘s foundation. Since that time, elexis has continually evolved, setting new technological standards with each new product concept. EMG Automation GmbH is a global market leader in drive technology and control engineering. Since 2000, our quality assurance products complement the technological product portfolio. BST International GmbH, with its specialisation in reel printing, has achieved significant market prominence within packaging, labelling, converting, non-woven fabrics and foil. BST products play a vital role in these types of production process when it comes to guidance, control and inspection procedures. BST Pro Mark Label Expo Booth To Show - How to Maximize Productivity and Performance Elmhurst / USA (BST) At the Label Expo show this September, the BST Pro Mark booth # 837 will focus on showing how to maximize productivity and performance of all the converting equipment and machines in a plant. Under the theme “Maximize Productivity and Performance – We Know How”, BST will use the Label Expo venue to illustrate the powerful impact that all it’s web guiding and web inspection systems have toward optimizing performance, results and ROI on presses, slitters, bag machines, sleeve seamers and many other converting machines. HEKUMA GmbH has also contributed significantly to the technological progress throughout its considerable history. PET bottles, CD jewel cases, day contact lens, shavers, ABS housings and Petri dishes are just some of the items produced on HEKUMA machines. These success stories are the result of ongoing processes of adaptation and the continuous development of product ideas. We are delighted to invite you to learn more about our subsidiaries’ activities by reading our ‘Product Newsletter’, which presents the latest events at EMG, BST and HEKUMA. BST‘s compact guiding device Compact Guide The company will show its complete product line of narrow web inspection and web guiding products for the label market. The featured product will be Shark® 100% inspection systems with PDF inspection and integrated Lector™ Workflow modules. Label Expo will be the first time showing in the US of the new digital Powerscope® 4000 video inspection system. With best wishes Siegfried Koepp SHARK 4000 Edgar M. Schäfer Also on display will be two inspection systems that offer automated color management and/or defect detection functions – the Super HandyScan® 4000 and Premius® digital 3Chip. Both use core technology unique to BST and graphic user interfaces that simplify operation and use. Newsletter 1/2010 | 02 Featured web guiding products will include the companies’ line of CompactGuide web guides with BST’s ekr 500 Plus controller, as well as the new Edition X web width measurement system and the CLS Pro 600 line and contrast guiding system. All provide excellent means to help maximize performance and productivity on many different narrow web presses and converting machines. There will be formal scheduled demonstrations of key products in the booth every day and numerous tools in the booth available for converters, which illustrate how each product on display helps to maximize performance, productivity, results and ROI for a wide range of converting machines. „Changing of the Guard“ at BST International Bielefeld / Deutschland (BST) Since 1st February, 2010, BST International, the market leader in quality assurance systems for the web processing industry, has been under the leadership of its new CEO, Percy Dengler. Mr. Dengler’s professional experience includes a number of senior executive positions not only in the printing industry but in other technology fields as well. He brings strong international sales and service experience to his new position as CEO of BST International. Originally from Mössingen, near Tübingen in Germany, Mr. Dengler is married and has two children. Following his education as a trained offset printer and his diploma work in printing technology, Mr. Dengler held several international sales and service positions at MAN Roland Druckmaschinen AG from 1994 to 2005, including the position of executive vice president for sales and service. Subsequently, from 2005 to 2007 Mr. Dengler went on to become sales director at Singulus Technologies AG, a firm active in the optical disc and solar technology fields. Following that Mr. Dengler served as an international sales director and managing director for Gardner Denver Schopfheim GmbH and Gardner Denver Deutschland GmbH, Members of the Gardner Denver Inc. of Quincy, Illinois in the US, an international firm in the compressed air and gas, vacuum and fluid transfer industries. Since arriving at BST in July, 2009 Mr. Dengler shared the CEO position with BST’s long-time CEO and company co-founder, Wolfgang Küster. Since 1978, Mr. Küster has held a number of positions at BST, including technical manager, sales manager and since 1990, as CEO. Although Mr. Küster retired from active participation on BST International’s executive board on 1st February, he will continue to remain connected with the company. Newsletter 1/2010 | 03 HEKUMA Advances Strengthened in the Future The financial crisis of the last two years has not only shaken the banking system, but in consequence completely broken through to the manufacturing business. Particularly harsh was the impact on the capital goods business. Of no exception, the automation specialist Hekuma belonging to the Elexis Group did not remain excluded. This made a directional change in the strategic direction of the company necessary. In the implementation, a new management team was appointed. Managing director, Bernhard Rupke, after one year in office, gives a status report as well as an outlook to the future of the company. Mr. Rupke, you took up your position as Hekuma-CEO on June 1, 2009, at the worst time of the crisis. How has Hekuma GmbH developed since then? Rupke: Like all companies in the capital goods industry, Hekuma included was affected by the marked economic slump in the years 2008 and 2009. Sales volume loss of around 40 percent was considered to be manageable. Accordingly, the capacity and cost budget had to be adjusted. In particular, I would like to include in this context the support of our parent company, the Elexis Group, to which Hekuma belongs to since January 2000. They gave us the necessary support and stability during this difficult phase. Hekuma GmbH has excellent core competencies in high-performance automation. These were strategically defined to the business areas medical, automotive, packaging and consumer goods. Corresponding technology and product development were further advanced for each business. Can you already give a first indication, in which direction has the Hekuma range developed? Rupke: The main objective was to implement the existing core competencies in the field of robotics, gripper technology, and automation technology in the injected molding automation, with short cycles and high cavitation, in industry-specific and market-driven products. The emergence of Hekuma GmbH is now focusing on the above-mentioned sectors, with an approximate global alignment. The overall strategy of Hekuma applies to innovatively promote the high performance niches in these industries. How do you see the market developments in medical technology for Hekuma GmbH? Rupke: The market for medical technology is an ever-growing, for Hekuma very interesting and important market. In this area we have standardized and modularized more automation solutions, in particular for the production of Petri dishes, pipette tips, wells, and cuvettes. High availability in the production of these challenging products is the demand of our customers. In addition, we complement our range with individual, customized automation solutions. In both cases we want to be a partner to our customers in the necessary qualifications and validations in the medical field. Newsletter 1/2010 | 04 How important is the automotive sector to the automotive market crisis? Rupke: Despite the crisis in 2009, Hekuma has implemented a multitude of equipment for the automotive industry in the past 12 months. In particular, the insertion of electrical, electronic, and mechanical components in the injection mold, constitutes high demands on the precision of the robot and gripper technology. Even the after the injection process required complex assembly and inspection process of the components characterizes another core competence of Hekuma GmbH. The same applies, based on active customer relationships, to provide new innovations and technologies. Automotive will continue to be an important main pillar of Hekuma GmbH. Is in-mold labeling of continued interest for Hekuma GmbH? Rupke: IML in injection molding applications has become a widely used standard technology. Especially for us, high cavitation applications and short cycles are interesting. The core competencies of Hekuma GmbH are particularly advantageous. Relatively new is the „in-mold labeling“ in thermoforming. Hekuma has in recent years done a lot of development work. Basic tests, up to 4-cavity applications have been tested positive. We are currently working on a system with up to 14 cavities for serial production on the basis of a specific customer order. Since the combination of thermo-forming products, like yogurt cups with in-mold labels, a number of application advantages, such as the provided ability for direct integration of barcodes or RFID transponders, we expect the development in the mid-term to be similar to standard technology, such as the injection IML. One final question: How will Hekuma advance into the future? Rupke: The customer requirements in the named sectors will steadily increase in the future and in increase in difficulty. This means for us that the partnership with customers are to be built up more closely and supporting. Especially in the planning phase of our clients, it is important to ensure maximum support to generate the most appropriate and most efficient solution. In the implementation phase, the previously mentioned core competencies of Hekuma are to be translated into customer benefits. The success of our customers, in terms of high availability with zero-defect production in manufacturing everyday life, is the measurable claim. But this not only applies to further expanding the partnership with our customers, but also with other project participants, such as injection molding manufacturers, and the leading mold manufacturers, in order to demonstrate efficient project work in the sense of our shared customers. Thank you for your time and we wish the Hekuma Team all the best! Contact elexis AG | Industriestr. 1 | 57482 Wenden / Germany © 2010 elexis AG, www.elexis.de Gabriele Bornemann | Leiterin Investor Relations / M & A Phone: +49 2762 612-136 | Fax: +49 2762 612-135