Chairman Letter

Dear Shareholders,

This financial year has seen dormakaba make good progress on the execution of its Shape4Growth strategy and related transformation program, leading to a strong financial performance in line with its mid-term targets. A new organizational setup has been put into place, with global management of our commercial organization and innovation. We have sharpened our focus on core strategic markets and launched key efficiency and cost initiatives in operations, procurement and corporate services.

Strong 2023/24 performance driven by strategy execution

The strategy is delivering as expected: dormakaba has achieved strong organic net sales growth with substantial increases in both the adjusted EBITDA margin and ROCE. As we progress further in our strategy execution, our priorities are also evolving: these will include building on leadership positions to boost sustainable growth in core markets, leveraging key offerings beyond their home markets, reducing portfolio complexity to free up resources for further investment in innovation, establishing continuous improvement programs throughout production and procurement, and fostering a high-performance, customer-centric culture. With this, we will ensure that our strategy continues to deliver sustainable improvements and growth.

Fostering our strong ESG position

As a leading global player in the access and thus construction industry, we take our ESG responsibilities very seriously. That is why we have now further linked sustainability goals with our business goals, integrating ESG targets into our Long-Term Incentive plan for executive compensation.

dormakaba benefits from a strong foundation for its sustainability governance, with clear targets and ambitions. This has allowed us to delegate further oversight responsibility for sustainability measures to the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee. This year we are publishing our first Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and extended EU Taxonomy reports. We are also in compliance with the non-financial reporting requirements of the Swiss Code of Obligations, and have completed the double materiality assessment under the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. Most importantly, we have now introduced a binding vote on our Sustainability Report at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM) on 10 October 2024.

AGM 2024: continued progress in governance

At the upcoming AGM, the Board of Directors will propose a dividend CHF 8.00 which represents a payout ratio of 51.1%. This reflects our strong operational performance and the impact of one-off restructuring expenses for our transformation on this financial year’s net profit.

Till Reuter resigned from his seat on the Board of Directors in order to take up his responsibilities as CEO on 1 January 2024. In addition, John Y. Liu will retire from the Board effective 10 October. The Board of Directors proposes Marianne Janik and Ilias Läber for election to the two open seats. 

Finally, the Board of Directors is opening the position of Auditor with an ongoing tender, with the resulting candidate to be proposed to the 2025 AGM.

We firmly believe that dormakaba is well positioned for the coming years, and we will continue to work to earn your trust and support every day. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your much valued trust during this time of transformation.

Sincerely,

Svein Richard Brandtzæg

Chairman