Stabilus : S.A. presents long-term strategic roadmap STAR 2025

CORPORATE NEWS

Stabilus S.A. presents long-term strategic roadmap STAR 2025

Luxembourg/Koblenz, November 27, 2017 - Stabilus S.A. (ISIN: LU1066226637), one of the world's leading suppliers of gas springs, damping solutions and electromechanical drives for motion control, today presents its long-term objectives plan 'STAR 2025' (STAR: Stabilus Reloaded). First formulated during the 2011 business year, the STAR roadmap initially - labelled STAR 2020 - set long-term objectives for the period through fiscal 2020. The STAR objectives are divided into segment-specific goals, performance indicators, and projects. The process served as foundation for both the operational successes of Stabilus in recent years and the company's successful equity market debut in May 2014. In the period since the 2011 business year, Stabilus has more than doubled its revenues, thus attaining key STAR 2020 objectives ahead of schedule.

In the shape of STAR 2025, the kinematics specialist is now presenting the next phase of its strategic planning objectives up to the 2025 financial year, once again setting itself ambitious goals. Underpinned by the vision of advancing to become the world's leading supplier of motion control systems, Stabilus plans to continue to grow sustainably and profitably. Stabilus CEO Dietmar Siemssen explained: 'We want to grow sustainably while making Stabilus into the leading supplier of motion control systems. As we do so, our growth will continue to run at rates clearly above average market trends.'

The following objectives are defined in STAR 2025:

1. Sustainable growth: Stabilus strives to continue to grow faster than the market, setting itself a target of average annual growth of at least 6 percent. New customer acquisition, product innovations, and the continued exploration of new and existing markets shall contribute to this process. The company will also continue to review selected external growth opportunities. The forces driving this ambitious growth are global developments and megatrends such as demographic change, digitization, and autonomous driving.

2. Globalization: Stabilus intends to systematically extend its global footprint, keeping in mind growth rates in individual markets. In doing so, Stabilus will remain true to its 'In the region for the region' principle, under which regional development and distribution competencies are set up locally, for example in China, South Korea, and Mexico. Over the medium- to long-term, orders received from a region are to be produced to a large extent in the respective region.

3. Excellence: The Stabilus excellence initiative is designed to address more than just the excellence of production and product quality. The initiative aims at ensuring that all employees continuously pursue excellence in all of their actions. Every single process and operation inside the company, from recruitment through to customer contact, is to be steadily and progressively improved. In production, for example, the company deploys internationally established methods such as Kaizen, 5S and
6 Sigma. Through this commitment to quality, Stabilus is seeking to extend its leadership in the field of both quality and technology, to position itself even more clearly and distinctly as a partner to its customers, and to further improve its attractiveness as an employer.

4. Innovation: Taking innovations from the drawing board to product launch and setting new market standards - these have long been one of the key Stabilus strengths. To further build on its leading position, the company is investing in a growing number of development projects. Common to them all is the aim of shortening innovation cycles, of establishing a culture of innovation inside the company, and of keeping the innovations pipeline primed with new products and applications. The company derives its growth potentials from global trends such as demographic change, an increasing demand for comfort, and higher standards of health and safety at work. Stabilus sees these megatrends as being linked to further developments such as digitization, electromobility, autonomous driving, and the rise of megacities. Identifying customer needs, getting together with customers to develop solutions jointly, and seizing market opportunities - all serve as a solid basis for strong growth fueled by innovative products and applications.

5. 'One Stabilus': Sustained entrepreneurial success is contingent upon the combined efforts of all members of the workforce and a corporate culture that fosters innovation and a constant willingness to embrace change. In addition to further organizational and structural integration, therefore, a group-wide sense of team spirit and togetherness are essential, and this is a further aspect Stabilus supports through corresponding values and leadership guidelines. It is by these means that Stabilus also forges a high degree of employee identification with its corporate goals.

Stabilus CEO Siemssen said: 'Upon concluding the 2017 business year, we had already reached key objectives of STAR 2020 ahead of schedule, among them the EUR 800 million revenue threshold. In the shape of STAR 2025, we are continuing to pursue our plans with the same methodology that made us successful in past years. We wish to get even closer to our customers and their needs and to support them with solutions that help them retain their market edge. The objectives, performance indicators, and strategic measures derived from STAR 2025 will enable us to build on our technological leadership in our target markets.'

About Stabilus

As one of the world's leading suppliers of gas springs, damping solutions and electromechanical drives, Stabilus has for eight decades been demonstrating its expertise in the automotive industry and a variety of other sectors. Gas springs, dampers and electromechanical POWERISE drives from Stabilus optimize opening, closing, lifting, lowering and adjusting operations, and also protect against vibrations. Employing a workforce of more than six thousand worldwide, the company has its operational headquarters in Koblenz. According to preliminary figures, Stabilus reported sales revenues of EUR 910.0 million in the 2017 fiscal year. Stabilus has a global production network encompassing plants in nine countries. Additionally, the Group maintains regional offices and relations to sales partners in over fifty countries in Europe, North, Central and South America, and in Asia Pacific. Stabilus is listed in the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and included in the SDAX index.

Important Notice

This press release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Stabilus Group management and other information currently available to Stabilus. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here.