Customers

Disclosures 102-6, 102-16

"We put our customers at the centre of everything we do. At RadiciGroup we are constantly working to meet customer expectations and foster the business relationship.

We work with our customers according to the principles of fairness, following contractual specifications.

We are committed to offering quality service and products, at competitive conditions, in compliance with the Law.

We work together to develop and use low-impact products, through processes that reduce the use of resources and the generation of waste and emissions. All our products come with the documentation required by current legislation.

We provide and ask for comprehensive information from our customers so that they can always make informed decisions.

We expect compliance with the agreed conditions and, in turn, we adhere to these same conditions. We never carry out services without an appropriate contractual relationship."

- From the RadiciGroup Code of Ethics -

RadiciGroup has a worldwide Customer network, served both through a global distribution network and an internationalised manufacturing operation with plants in major markets. RadiciGroup production sites and sales offices have followed the evolution of the markets with characteristics varying from region to region and from sector to sector. In the polymers and engineering polymers areas, the considerable presence of medium and large-sized companies operating in globalised sectors such as automotive and electrical/electronics requires proximity to the production hubs of each area from a commercial and often also a production perspective. In the fibre area, which involves numerous small to medium-sized players, it is important to manage the customer relationship taking into account the complexities of highly articulated value chains. All RadiciGroup Customers are processing companies. 2021 in Europe was marked by:

A general recovery of production levels and demand in the majority of sectors. Demand held up during the year, with the exception of the automotive sector which, after an initial recovery, suffered the negative impact of the global shortage of components and key materials, particularly semiconductors, which downgraded expectations for growth.

As of early 2021, there was a sharp and persistent increase in the cost of international freight due to the global shortage of ships and containers, in particular on Asia routes. This led to bottlenecks in globalised value chains and issues in both material and component procurement and export flows from Europe. Logistics issues were compounded at a local level by the European shortage of drivers and heavy-goods vehicles for specialised transport. Following the robust and widespread recovery, a general increase in the prices of basic commodities was also seen during the year. Issues with the availability of certain chemical and polymer intermediates caused by plant and climate-related problems led to significant further price rises and impacted the supply of chemical and polymer specialities in Europe and the world on several occasions.

In the last quarter of the year, surging energy prices drove production costs even higher with consequent increases in sales prices in the main value chains on European and global markets. This dynamic continued into 2022 and gained further momentum with the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The result has been uncertainty around production levels and future demand, with a range of expectations according to each sector.