Dr. Jochen Weyrauch, CEO Dürr Systems AG

• Business units: Surface technology for wet paint and powder coating
• Target groups: General industry
• Employees: 1,700 worldwide
• Annual sales: n. A.

1. In which areas and to what extent has the pandemic affected your company?
   1. What strategies have you pursued or worked out - what would you do differently with today's state of knowledge?
   2. How do you evaluate the measures taken by the government, including aid programs for business?
   3. How was business activity affected (for example, communication between companies, processing of existing orders)?

We suffered Corona-related losses, especially in business with the auto industry. One exception was China, where order intake increased by almost 30% from January to September.

1. We responded to the drop in sales with cost-cutting measures: e.g. short-time work, reduction of working time accounts, and cuts in capital expenditures, administrative costs, and other expenses.
2. Aid programs were not relevant for Dürr.
3. There were problems in part with travel to customers' construction sites. Overall, however, we got a good handle on it, also through the use of digital tools.

• What is your summary for fiscal 2020, what were your expectations at the end of 2019?

The hoped-for recovery started in the second half of the year. Therefore: 2020 was tough, but we finished it properly.

• How did Corona affect your industry, and how did the pandemic impact trends and developments that had prevailed up to that point, for example in the technology sector? To what extent did the Corona year trigger stagnation, or where might it even have sparked a new dynamic?

The Corona crisis led to significant declines in investment by the automotive industry in the first half of the year, further exacerbating an already difficult environment, particularly in Europe. However, it showed that companies with a high level of digitalization are more resistant. In this respect, Corona has accelerated digitization.

• Apart from the pandemic, were there any anomalies/developments in 2020 that you did not expect?

No.

• To what extent do developments in the international political arena - such as pandemic-related restrictions, import tariffs, trade restrictions or political instability - influence your forecasts?
  1. What role does the U.S. presidential election play?
  2. What role does the Brexit play?

The biggest impact on our business was pandemic-related travel restrictions. Our forecasts generally take into account the global political environment and the associated opportunities and risks

1. The outcome of the US presidential election gives rise to renewed hope for more commitment and reliability in international relations.
2. Dürr's volume of business in the United Kingdom is small. Nevertheless, Brexit is an aberration: it hinders economic life and sends the wrong signal politically.

• Which sales markets are particularly interesting for you at the moment? Which international sales markets do you want to focus on even more in the future?

We are globally positioned and active in a large number of markets. We see particular growth potential in the emerging markets, where we have expanded our capacities in recent years. Among other things, the Southeast Asian market will gain in importance and South America will also return in the medium term.

• Which markets have gained/lost importance (for you)?

In 2020, China was enormously important. Our business grew significantly there, counterbalancing the Corona-related losses elsewhere. This was also due to the dynamic development in the area of electromobility with a large number of startups. Europe continues to be important, but we are seeing saturation in automotive production capacities.

• How is the shortage of skilled workers/labor market developing?

IT specialists for digitization are most in demand. However, there is not enough supply in Germany. That is why we are also setting up digital development centers in emerging markets such as China and India.

• What role did the topics of optimization, resource efficiency and digitization (Industry 4.0, BigData, predictive maintenance) play in 2020? How do you assess the priority for the next few years and has this assessment changed as a result of the pandemic?

Digitalization is the most important trend in our market. With our tools, paint shop operators can increase their overall plant effectiveness. Advanced Analytics is one of the innovations from the DXQ product family that we introduced this year. It is the first tool for paint shops that uses artificial intelligence to identify sources of error and determine optimal maintenance times. In 2020, Dürr implemented its largest digitalization project to date. At a VW plant in China, DXQ applications are used to optimize processes, production quality, energy consumption and plant maintenance. The fact that the digitization trend continues to be in focus is shown, for example, by the Industrial Cloud from VW and Amazon, which offers all VW plants access to a rapidly growing range of different software applications, including those from Dürr.

• How do you assess further economic development, for 2021 and the following years? What strategies are you pursuing in this regard, where do you see your company and the industry in three years' time?

In 2021, the economy should continue to recover after the Corona shock, but not yet reach pre-crisis levels. Automotive production is expected to be back at pre-crisis levels in 2023. In Europe, we expect only moderate growth in the automotive sector due to saturation in manufacturing capacities and have therefore reduced our capacities. Dürr will be an even more digital company in three years' time, standing for highly automated and sustainable production processes and further supporting the shift towards electromobility.

• What priorities and development goals are on the agenda for your company in 2021? What are your expectations for the next year?

The trend in automotive production is toward flexible manufacturing concepts and the individualization of products. To this end, we have developed the concept of the paint shop of the future and overspray-free painting. In the case of the latter, we will bring the further development EcoPaintJet Pro to production maturity in 2021. The issue of sustainability is also becoming increasingly important for our customers and for us. We reconcile economic activity with ecology and fair working conditions. Among other things, we joined the United Nations Global Compact in 2020. This means we are committed to the ten sustainable principles in the areas of human rights, labor standards, the environment and corruption prevention.

• In which areas are you planning changes and/or investments?

The most important trends in our markets are digitalization, automation, sustainability and electromobility. These are the areas in which we are focusing our investments.