SUSTAINABILITY REPORT

NON-FINANCIAL REPORT 2022

WE PUT SUSTAINABILITY TOGETHER LIKE A PUZZLE

The year 2022 was another year in a row where we all faced new challenges. In our case, it was the energy crisis, which greatly affected the company's operations.

Every crisis costs a lot of money. You have to take a lot of measures to keep the economy in order. You have to be able to adapt to an equally paralyzed supply chain. And deal with what was normally available and now isn't. By Kofola being a local company that tries its best to support domestic suppliers, we have not had to face abysmal shortages of raw materials. Thanks to the support of European producers, we were better off than companies that buy cheaply, but by far.

But like the others, our energies have increased significantly. If before the crisis energy was about two to three percent of our total costs, at some

point it jumped to ten percent. And that's a lot. A year ago, we could easily have paid a little extra for the green energy we preferred. We already had Slovakia, Czech Republic and Slovenia, the only country missing was Croatia. However, at the end of 2022 we were glad there was any energy at all.

The CNG truck way proved similarly blind in a time of absolute gas shortages.

Nevertheless, we have not given up on sustainability and have taken the crisis as a challenge - we have redirected our focus to savings. As a result, we accelerated the purchase of less energy-intensive machines. This investment, which we had planned for later years, proved to be highly relevant. It has helped not only nature, but ultimately the company's economics.

And that's how, in my point of view, it should be with the whole sustainability matter. It shouldn't just become a trendy buzzword or a corporate charity project. It's supposed to be completely imbued into the values and economics of the business. And it shouldn't be imposed from above, it should come from the heart of every company. The regulation of mandatory ESG impact reporting that was so much talked about last year may go against this. That three-letter acronym, which until recently was shrouded in mystery for many, is suddenly set to become a measure of whether you are doing business well or badly. Previously, those who really wanted to do ESG were the ones who cared most about it. With mandatory reporting by larger companies, it will become increasingly difficult to distinguish who is just trying to have it fulfilled and who is going to go beyond expectations in content. The spreadsheet can always take it all...

I'm glad that Kofola has been one of the companies that hasn't needed regulations to look after its surroundings for more than a decade. We have come a long way since 2010, when we proactively started to address issues such as water conservation, carbon neutrality and the circular economy. We have a clear packaging strategy that prioritises returnable packaging, and we are moving towards circular PET material management thanks to the deposit system. In the area of water resource protection, we have managed to extend protected BIO corridors from Slovakia to the Czech Republic. We founded the non-profit organization Kvapka Rajeckej doliny, whose main focus is the design and implementation of functional water conservation measures. And step by step we are trying to shorten and streamline the logistics as much as possible and supply chains and find ways to turn waste into a resource. In all this, we are trying to cultivate the relationships around us.

Kofola

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Sustainability Report

We Put Sustainability Together Like A Puzzle

WE PUT SUSTAINABILITY TOGETHER LIKE A PUZZLE

I trust you will find our basic report to be more than just the obligatory spreadsheet, but rather a readable testament to how much we live our mission at Kofola: If you love the nature and the people around, nothing else matters. You can always find the way. And if it appeals to you, look forward to its elaboration later this year.

Jannis Samaras, CEO of Kofola Group

Kofola

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Sustainability Report

We Put Sustainability Together Like A Puzzle

TABLE OF CONTENTS

WHERE ARE KOFOLA'S ROOTS

6

WE ARE FOLLOWING THE GREEN

9

OUR PEOPLE

14

CLIMATE CHANGE

19

WASTE

21

PACKAGING

24

OUR SUPPLIERS

28

BIODIVERSITY

30

WATER

32

HEALTH

34

RESPONSIBLE MARKETING AND LOCALS

36

Kofola

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Sustainability Report

Table of Contents

We love nature. We care about the people who are connected to Kofola. And we will always look for ways to protect nature and keep our employees, customers and suppliers happy. No matter the obstacles or the distance of the goal.

Sustainability resonates with the times and it resonates with Kofola. For us, it means ten specific areas to each of which we have assigned several goals: climate change, packaging, waste, water, nature and landscape, consumer health, employees, supporting locals and charitable causes, suppliers, and, last but not least, responsible marketing. This report will reveal how we intend to meet these goals and how we want to move forward in these areas.

To put down roots means to grow with the place, to have a piece of heart here. And that's how we feel about the locations of our production plants. Each region has its own temperament, but also its own weaknesses. We strive to be a partner to the local people. Whether it's farmers, among whom we look for new local suppliers, or the local government, with whom we work together to protect nature.

One of our goals is to expand a division that will help us take care of our self-sufficiency in growing herbs and apples. We want to keep reducing the amount of sugar and preservatives that we use in some of our products. And also, to look for new opportunities and ways to move forward technologically.

We are clear about our vision. We are transparent about them and we speak up. People who feel the same way as we do then come to Kofola themselves. We trust our people and give them space in the company. Trust, from our point of view, opens the way to independence, which in turn is the basis for making joint and informed decisions at crossroads about moving forward.

Kofola

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Sustainability Report

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Kofola CeskoSlovensko AS published this content on 30 June 2023 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 30 June 2023 10:04:29 UTC.