Overall Assessment of Our Business
Performance and Business Situation
In the course of 2020, the macroeconomic framework was
massively impacted by the pandemic. This was reflected in the
course of the year by strongly fluctuating sales trends and
capacity utilization at the production facilities, to which we were
able to respond flexibly. A moderate decline in sales coupled
with favorable raw-material price developments enabled us to
maintain a good earnings level. Additional pandemic-related
cost savings and savings achieved through proactive measures
resulted in an improved earnings situation compared to the
previous year, a margin at the upper edge of our strategic target
range and an improved value of the company. Parallel to
managing the pandemic, we continued to press ahead with our
strategic activities to develop medium- to long-term growth
areas and the digital transformation.
Our balance sheet continued to show a very solid structure
at the end of 2020 and offers sufficient financial headroom for
investments in sustainable profitable growth.
Innovation, Employees, Environment,
and Safety
Innovation
As a specialty chemicals company, innovations are an important
factor for ALTANA, enabling us to offer our customers
new, competitive solutions and at the same time to
meet cutting-edge requirements regarding performance profile,
costs, environmental protection, and sustainability.
Thanks to close cooperation with our customers we are integrated
into new fields of development at an early stage
and thus can develop customized solutions quickly and reliably.
We build on existing competencies, on the one hand,
and gain access to new ones on the other, in order to continuously
adapt our product portfolio to market and customer
needs. To this end, our researchers and developers have access
to the latest analytical methods in our chemical laboratories
and application-technology test laboratories. Numerous awards
from our customers underscore our success as an innova-
tive solutions provider.
In addition to the activities in the business divisions, selected
innovations are initiated and coordinated at the
ALTANA level, aimed at tapping new business fields and absorbing
technology and market trends. This is achieved
through different procedures, namely, through the ALTANA
Institute, the central management of technology platforms,
as well as corporate venturing investments.
With the help of the ALTANA Institute, external networks
and close cooperation with universities and research institutes
around the world are used to harness outside impetus.
The technology transfer of the first completed projects to
the divisions, which was initiated in 2019, was successfully
continued in 2020. In addition, new cooperation partners
from Germany and abroad were added to the network and
new research projects were launched with them.
In the 2020 fiscal year, ALTANA invested more in technology
platforms than the year before. In 2019, the activi-
ties of the Printed Electronics platform had been integrated
into the ELANTAS division. In the process, we used existing
64 Business Development I Innovation, Employees, Environment, and Safety