Press Release , 21 October 2020

Zumtobel Group: 70 years of company history 01 From a family business to an international lighting group

Dornbirn, – 70 years ago the company, initially a family business, started manufacturing ballasts for the newly introduced fluorescent light fitting technology: in 1950 Dr. Walter Zumtobel founded “Elektrogeräte und Kunstharzpresswerk W. Zumtobel KG”. At the time, the replacement of incandescent lamps by fluorescent lamps marked the beginning of a new era in lighting technology and prompted to Dr. Walter Zumtobel start producing luminaires only two years later. His two sons, Jürg und Fritz Zumtobel, succeeded Dr. Walter Zumtobel in managing the company for more than two decades starting in the 1980s. Having served as CEO for 22 years, Jürg Zumtobel handed over the management to an external CEO for the first time in 2003 and took over as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. Since the IPO in 2006, the Zumtobel family has remained a stable core shareholder with a stake of today roughly 37%. In May 2020, the two long-standing Supervisory Board members Jürg and Fritz Zumtobel retired from the company. At the same time, Karin Zumtobel-Chammah was elected new Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board.

Today the has roughly 6,000 employees worldwide and is one of the leading providers of innovative lighting solutions, lighting components and related services in . Roughly a third of all employees work at the home location in Dornbirn, making the Zumtobel Group one of the largest employers in the region. Having trained more than 800 apprentices since 1964, the Zumtobel Group has a long tradition in and attaches great importance to training junior staff. Due to its outstanding commitment to apprentice training the company has been recognised with the “Outstanding Apprentice Programme” distinction, which is awarded by the Vorarlberg Chamber of Commerce, for more than 30 years.

“Our lighting expertise and the experience gained in our company’s 70-year history form the basis for the Zumtobel Group’s successful path towards the future. Thanks to our strong brands, their innovative products and lighting solutions and our long-standing know-how of the effect of light on people, we can build on proven strengths. Then as now, research and development is a fundamental prerequisite for sustainable success,” CEO Alfred Felder summarises and adds, “We see enormous potential for innovation and growth with light as a key element in digital communication. We have set the course in this direction and are delighted to make an active contribution to shaping the future of light.”

External growth leads to international presence Having emerged from the core brand Zumtobel, the group today consists of the globally operating acdc, Thorn, Tridonic and Zumtobel brands, whose acquisitions have driven growth, the development of new market segments – for example with the acquisition of the German Staff Group in the 1990s – and internalisation. The Zumtobel Group has a global presence, which is reflected in its production sites on four continents as well as distribution partners in over 90 countries, and not least by the 70 different nationalities of the Group’s employees.

Innovation as a success factor Driven by Dr. Walter Zumtobel’s technical background and scientific curiosity, innovation and sustainable thinking have characterised the long-term orientation of the young company from the outset in the 1950s – and have been firmly embedded in the entrepreneurial mindset until today.

The headquarters in Dornbirn is the research and development centre of the lighting group and serves as an innovation hub within the Zumtobel Group: with strong competence and a high level of technological expertise, a leading patent portfolio in Austria – more than 8,000 active intellectual property

rights, including 5,000 patents and 145 newly registered inventions in the 2019/20 financial year – the lighting group is one of Austria’s most innovative companies. In an increasingly connected and digital world, the company considers product innovation a fundamental requirement for sustainable success and therefore invests heavily in the development of new products.

02 Based on findings of the non-visual effects of artificial lighting, Zumtobel is currently developing a groundbreaking technology which allows LED lighting to imitate natural day better than ever before. In practice, this marks a new path in the artificial lighting of interiors, reconciling the human need for daylight with the increasing amount of time spent in artificial environments.

New Light Forum: long-term investment in the home location In March 2019, the conversion of the old Zumtobel factory hall into a new Light Forum on an area of 4,000 square metres in Dornbirn’s Höchsterstrasse was kicked off. About a year later, just in time for its 70-year anniversary, the company has put the old building structure to sustainable use and created a unique place of light, where the Zumtobel Group can permanently display its full brand spectrum and potential as an international lighting company.

“As we are deeply rooted in the Vorarlberg region, it is important to us to contribute to the sustainable utilisation of an existing building by reusing the old factory hall,” says Zumtobel Group CEO Alfred Felder. “In doing so, we are making a long-term investment in the future of our company as well as in the further development of the regional economic area.”

As a meeting point and place of exchange, the new Light Forum will also be open to external users in the future, offering a space for art and culture in order to promote the interaction of society and business in urban space.

“Zumtobel comes from innovation. It has always been important to us to be close to our customers and to grow together with our customers. What my grandfather and also my father have always stood for is still very present today: always being open to the outside, being inspired from outside as a company while at the same time learning to delegate, to share knowledge in order to make more of it at the end of the day. That is part of our DNA. And that is also the idea of our new Light Forum: it should be an open space, a place of exchange and meeting people. It is extremely important that people from outside are invited inside so that we can create new lighting solutions for our customers together,” says Karin Zumtobel-Chammah, Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board of the Zumtobel Group.

The future of light is digital In the era of digital transformation, software-based services and solutions are increasingly gaining importance. With its software competence centre in Porto, which opened in 2019 and is operated by the lighting technology subsidiary Tridonic, the Zumtobel Group invests in this rapidly growing business segment. The link for Porto is the headquarters in Dornbirn as a research and development centre. The Zumtobel Group has thus set its course for the new era of digital lighting.

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© Zumtobel

Left: Founder Dr. Walter Zumtobel started the production of ballasts for the then new fluorescent light technology. Two years later, the production of luminaires started in Dornbirn (right).

Left: Zumtobel‘s innovative lighting concept underlines the modern architecture of Messe Dornbirn. © Faruk Pinjo Right: German Light Design Prize 2017 for Zumtobel’s globally unique LED special lighting solution for the Montforthaus in Feldkirch, Vorarlberg. © Matthiessen David

Left: Skyspace in Lech am Arlberg by US artist James Turrell, with whom Zumtobel has cooperated since 1997. © James Turrell | Photograph: Florian Holzherr Right: Complete lighting solution for the inner roof area of the Allianz Arena in , one of the world’s most modern stadiums. © Faruk Pinjo

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Left: More than 77,000 lights of the Zumtobel Group’s acdc, Thorn and Zumtobel brands were installed in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. © Alex Morton, Getty Images Right: Zumtobel lighting solution for the BBC Wales broadcasting centre. © Zumtobel

Left: Zumtobel special luminaires for the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, including 1,200 hand-blown glass ball luminaires for the concert hall. © Zumtobel; Photographer: Michael Zapf Right: More than 1,000 Zumtobel luminaires were installed in the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao. © Faruk Pinjo

Overview of historic milestones: 1950 Dr. Walter Zumtobel founds the company 1953 Introduction of Profilux, the first complete Zumtobel light fitting 1963 First international design award for a Zumtobel product 1976 Zumtobel becomes a stock corporation (Aktiengesellschaft) 1981 Dr. Walter Zumtobel retires from the Management Board of Zumtobel AG and becomes Chairman of the Supervisory Board. His son Jürg Zumtobel succeeds him as Chairman of the Management Board. 1983 Complete acquisition of Tridonic 1994 Complete acquisition of the Staff Group, Lemgo 2000 Acquisition Thorn Lighting Group 2001 Start of LED operations 2006 Initial public offering 2012 Tunable White technology 2018 Zumtobel Group opens a new luminaire and component production facility in Niš, Serbia 2019 Opening of the software competence centre in Porto, Portugal 2020 New Light Forum on 4,000 square metres at the home location in Dornbirn

For more information about the company history please visit the Zumtobel Group website.

Information This press release and the accompanying high-resolution images can be downloaded at: https://z.lighting/de/group/news-insights/

05 Media contact Zumtobel Group Press Team +43 (0)5572 509 575 [email protected]

The lighting industry in the course of time In the early 1950s, the replacement of incandescent lamps by fluorescent lamps marked the beginning of a new era in lighting technology and prompted founder Dr. Walter Zumtobel to start producing luminaires in 1952. In the 1980s, the electronic operation of fluorescent light fittings (electrical ballasts), compact lamps and small high- pressure lamps (HIT) enabled innovative concepts such as indirect/direct free-standing and pending luminaires and the concept of “mellow light”. The 1990s brought digital electronic ballasts, which allowed light management for the first time and, consequently, comfortable dimming and grouping of luminaires as well as saving lighting scenes. Also, mixing colours of light – the Tunable White technology, the adaptive white light featuring dynamic colour temperature adjustment – became possible as a result. The 21st century marked the beginning of the age of LED: thanks to their energy efficiency, LEDs have been extremely successful and brought about additional possibilities such as colour changes, changeable light distribution and a miniaturisation of light sources. Today, LEDs account for 90% of Zumtobel Group’s luminaires. Having arrived in the digital age in 2020, luminaires as a part of the Internet of Things enable software-based services and new solutions.

“My father started to work with light in 1950. 70 years later, we still want to show how light shapes the world around us. We rely on technological expertise and innovations to drive our company’s success. At the same time we have to create worlds where light is an experience, where our products tell a story. We need to emotionalise our products – and this is exactly where our new Light Forum comes into play,” says Jürg Zumtobel, son of founder Dr. Walter Zumtobel and former Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Zumtobel Group, from which he retired in May 2020.

25 years of Zumtobel Light Centres The idea of the Zumtobel Group Light Centres was raised more than 25 years ago based on the philosophy to collaborate closely with renowned architects and designers to establish a place where people can experience the best light for a particular application. The opening of the Light Forum at our headquarters in Dornbirn was gradually followed by a series of international Light Centres. But this concept soon grew and became international, as these key sites became spaces for showcasing art, sharing knowledge and hosting creative exchanges. Today, each Light Centre has its own identity, thanks to the distinctive signature of famous names such as Sauerbruch Hutton, Snøhetta, Bolles Wilson and Hans Hollein. The special look and feel of these locations has provided the stimulus for projects ranging from exhibition stands to the famous Zumtobel Group artistic annual report, while architects and designers like James Turrell, , Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry and Ettore Sottsass have used our Light Centres to present their own inspiring collections and intriguing masterpieces.

Artistic Annual Reports: Cultivating a tradition of almost 30 years The constant exchange and close collaboration with architects, artists and designers has always been an integral part of the Zumtobel Group's corporate culture. It is 29 years since Russian architect and designer Mikhail Anikst designed the first annual report for the business year 1991/1992. Initiated by Jürg Zumtobel, the then CEO and later Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Zumtobel Group AG until mid-2020, this rich tradition is now continued by Isabel Zumtobel. The core philosophy behind this series of “art books” has always been to demonstrate the company's close connection to art and culture at group level, and to create a design language beyond the corporate design guidelines of the individual brands. In line with this thinking, a wide range of personalities from the company`s extensive network has been invited over the years to shape the annual report with their individual ideas, showcasing their own unique approach to the topic of lighting and the business of the Zumtobel Group. The result is a series of unique and elaborate pieces that have now become collector’s items. Alongside graphic designers like Italo Lupi, Neville Brody, Per Arnoldi and Stefan Sagmeister, who began the artistic collaboration, a number of prominent artists such as Gerhard Merz, Siegrun Appelt, Olafur Eliasson, Anish Kapoor and James Turrell and architects like Dominique Perrault, Hani Rashid / Asymptote, François Roche / Studio R&Sie(n), Sejima Kazuyo and Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA, /

DCA, Kjetil Thorsen / Snøhetta, Elizabeth Diller / Scofidio and Renfro and Yung Ho Chang / Atelier FCJZ as well as graphic designer Jessica Walsh / Studio Sagmeister & Walsh have put their creative stamp on the annual report. Last year's edition was designed by Austrian architect Dietmar Eberle. The youngest book was designed by Professor Werner Sobek, a renowned architect and pioneer for sustainability in the construction industry.

06 About the Zumtobel Group: The Zumtobel Group is an international lighting group and a leading supplier of innovative lighting solutions, lighting components and associated services. With its brands, acdc, Thorn, Tridonic and Zumtobel, the Group offers its customers around the world a comprehensive portfolio of products and services. The Group’s know-how about the effects of light on people, acquired over decades, forms the basis for the development of innovations and for accessing new fields of business. In the lighting business, the Group with its Thorn and Zumtobel brands, is one of the European market leaders. Through its lighting technology brand, Tridonic, the Zumtobel Group plays a leading role worldwide in the manufacture of hardware and software for lighting systems (LED light sources and LED drivers, sensors and lighting management). The Zumtobel Group’s service offering is one of the most comprehensive in the entire lighting industry, including consultation on smart lighting controls and emergency lighting systems, light contracting, design services and project management of turnkey lighting solutions, as well as new, data-based services focused on delivering connectivity for buildings and municipalities via the lighting infrastructure. The Group is listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange (ATX Prime) and currently holds a workforce of around 6,000 employees. In the 2019/20 financial year, the Group posted revenues of EUR 1,131.3 million. The Zumtobel Group is based in Dornbirn in the Vorarlberg region of Austria. For further information, please visit z.lighting/group