Südzucker International Finance B. V. Südzucker AG ... - Xetra

profitability. Our research and development activities are networked throughout theEuropean Union, with a high degree of coordination and cooperation between our mainR&D centers. Our researchers’ ambitions and our long-term group strategy are thatSüdzucker should achieve a high rate of innovation, continuing to contribute to expandingour market share and maintaining our profitability in the future. We aim to establish aproduct portfolio for the sugar and special products segments covering functional,individual items as well as integrated systems solutions for our customers. We areoccupying further market niches with an expanded range of tailored products, partlydeveloped jointly with our customers.The restructuring program relating to the sugar segment’s production locations wascompleted in Germany with the closure of the Löbau works at the end of the 2002campaign, together with capital expenditures to raise capacity at other locations. It is notcurrently possible to predict whether additional restructuring programs will be neededdue to further export restrictions or deterioration in overall conditions.After a delay of several years, on March 26, 2003 the Polish state treasury ministry approvedthe sale of Slaska Spolka Cukrowa (SSC), the Silesian sugar group, to Saint Louis SucreGroup, part of the Südzucker Group. Thus, as planned, Südzucker has strengthened itsexisting position in Poland and has achieved its objectives of reaching a market share of25 %. After France and Germany, Poland is the third largest European sugar producer and,with some 40 million inhabitants, is the most important market of all the central Europeancountries. Thus, even before Poland joins the European Union in 2004, Südzucker hasbeen able to supplement the group’s six existing factories located in eastern Poland withfourteen Silesian sugar factories. In future, our newly-established group in Poland will bethat country’s second-largest sugar company, with an EU quota of 422,000 tonnes ofsugar and sales of some D 300 million. The new grouping will simplify a restructuring ofthe neighboring Silesian and eastern Polish sugar factories needed for EU membershipand will provide synergies in procurement, production, administration and marketing.As part of its concentration on its core business activities, Südzucker has sold all itsshares in VK Mühlen AG, Hamburg, held via AIH Agrar-Industrie-Holding, to Leipnik-Lundenburger Invest Beteiligungs AG, a subsidiary of Raiffeisen-Holding Niederösterreich-Wien, VK Mühlen AG has thus gained a further strong partner in the European flour market.F-47