Annual Report 2006

2006 was, in all respects, another successful year for the tesa Group. Sales rose by 8 %, thus growing significantly faster than the market, and the increase in our profitability once again outstripped sales growth, resulting in an EBIT margin of 9.1 %.

Both the industrial business and the business with product solutions for consumers contributed to this success. The fact that the positive development applied to all tesa regions was particularly encouraging. What is more, our growth is not only attributable to the general recovery of the economy as a whole – this can be seen among other things from the fact that we gained market share in many of our markets around the world.

2006 was another successful business year for the tesa Group

The new tesa factory and technology center in the Suzhou industrial park in China started production in the year under review. Our biggest and most significant international capital expenditure project was completed with a double success. Firstly, the factory established itself in the regional markets sooner than planned and contributed to our Company’s good performance in its very first year. Secondly, tesa is also setting standards in China from a social point of view: In December, the Suzhou district government honored the factory as one of the best employers among the over 2000 well-known companies in the industrial park.

Five years of encouraging development show that tesa has become a highly competitive international company with market-driven, flexible structures, which form a solid basis for sustained business success. In 2006, we continued our successful strategy on this basis and rigorously pursued the strengthening of our innovation performance, the development of new application areas, and the expansion of our sales structures in the growth regions.

We would like to thank our employees around the world for their joint contribution to this success. We would also like to express our thanks to our customers, business partners, and our shareholder Beiersdorf for their trusting cooperation.

Dieter Steinmeyer, Chairman
Jan Christoph Teetz, Chief Financial Officer
Dr. Robert Gereke, Member of Executive Board (Industrial Business)