Management Statement
on Quality and Environmental Policy

There are three criteria which we respect as the mainstays of our entrepreneurial activities:

• Our employees are the basis of our enterprise.
• Customer satisfaction is the basis of our success.
• Preserving the environment is the basis for the continued existence of our society.

We consider it our responsibility to match our corporate policies to market requirements in the best possible way. Therefore, we make every effort to preserve the company's capabilities in the long term, enhance its innovativeness and competitiveness, and boost its economic performance in all its divisions with a view to optimizing the quality of our products and processes and increasing overall customer satisfaction as a result.

The main objective of our business is maximum customer satisfaction. To this end, we are committed to designing our products and services in a way that customer expectations are satisfied all-round. We are aware that customer satisfaction is the number one criterion for securing our competitiveness and economic success in the long term, thus ensuring the continued existence of our company and preserving the jobs it offers.

We are confident that our products and services can be best adapted to customer expectations and requirements by using a process-oriented approach in organizing all our operations and working conditions, coupled with comprehensive documentation and continuous further development. This implies continuous adaptation to changing market requirements and a constant effort to remove potential error causes. Taking our environmental responsibility seriously, we also have suitable measures in place to check, assess and monitor the current and future impact of our activities and products on the environment. We consider it a must to comply with all the relevant legal requirements and regulations and take adequate measures to preserve the natural resources and keep the environmental burden as low as possible.

Staff training is an important factor in promoting our employees' sense of responsibility for the quality of our products and preservation of the environment. We do everything to keep their knowledge current, as documented in our Quality and Environmental Management Manual. All commitments contained therein - as reflected in process descriptions and work instructions, for example - are binding directions to be observed by all the employees of Carl Stahl Kromer GmbH. Consistent implementation ensures that all of our business activities with relevance to product quality and a potential impact on the environment - whether organizational, financial or technical - will be adequately planned, controlled and monitored and all contractual obligations will be fulfilled.

The Management, 3 April 2003