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We were happy to see the end of 2001, a year overshadowed by difficulties of both economic and political nature. The global economic downturn of the past year also affected our business. A series of new measures was adopted, but successes were rare indeed. Under such circumstances, our workforce had many obstacles to deal with, yet managed to perform well. I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all our staff members for their untiring effort and professionalism. As it has already been announced internally, at the start of 2001 we began revising our previously pursued strategy. The increasing pace of change in the market environment and the large growth of the Group over the last few years have made certain modifications a necessity. We are meeting this challenge with the assi-stance of an external consultant and have now almost completed our preparations. The implementation process that will begin shortly will require considerable effort from all of us, but I am convinced that we will manage it together with confidence, energy and deter-mination. But more on this in the next issue. Once this reorganization is complete, we can look with confidence to the future. In the current year, we will be working more creatively than ever on the development of new products and services. As we highlight in this issue, as early as last year we had already begun to concentrate on developing innovative new products and services. One example of this is our new Beach sink, which has been a resounding market success. A further success was the launch of the new Sinfonia coffee machine as part of our rapidly expanding coffee machine operations. In the Contract Group Division, activities focused mainly on service: two new logistics centers were set up in Germany and in the Middle East. In addition, we significantly accelerated our promising “Asia Sourcing” operation – but you should read it yourself. With best wishes, Michael Pieper, President & CEO Last changes: © Franke Holding AG