Side 4
ABOUT THIS REPORT ABENA AND THE ENVIRONMENT PEOPLE AND SOCIETY OUR GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE HOW WE REPORT Message from Chairman of the Board Change is the only constant For ABENA, the financial year 2023/2024 has been another year characterized by macroeconomic factors. Fluctuating prices, wars, digitalization, and demographic developments have all had an impact on our day-to-day business operations. Gladly, we also see that not all change is for the worse. At the same time as energy, raw materials, and freight prices have increased, we have expanded our business to conform to the increasing demand from our customers. In fact, our annual turnover has increased to bn5.7 DKK compared to last year. New opportunities The past year, we have introduced new, advanced products to our assortment. At the same time, we have established new subsidiaries in Austria and Italy, and are utilizing the opportunities deriving from digitalization in our logistics setup. We see that more of our customers require sustainable solutions. It is, therefore, important to us to constantly address and assess the targets we set back in 2019. In the coming financial year, we will look into the upcoming EU CSRD regulation and how we can incorporate the double materiality analysis into our sustainability strategy. Further, we are in the preparation phase to join the Science Based Targets-initiative (SBTi). 70 years of care In November 2023, we marked the 70 th anniversary of ABENA. Back in 1953, our purpose was to clean, repair and resell jute sacks for the agriculture industry under the name Sønderjyllands Sækkefabrik (“Southern Jutland’s Sack Company”). Today, we are one of Europe’s largest producers and suppliers of incontinence products, serving +90 markets with more than 38,000 different products. Because we care. Arne Terp-Nielsen, Chairman of the Board 4 | ABENA Group | ESG report 2023/2024 Arne Terp-Nielsen Chairman of the Board BECAUSE WE CARE
Side 5
ABOUT THIS REPORT ABENA AND THE ENVIRONMENT PEOPLE AND SOCIETY OUR GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE HOW WE REPORT A Guide to Exploring This Report The global landscape is constantly evolving. We recognize the need for continuous adjusting and transforming our company to fulfil the requirements of our surroundings and the requirements we lay out ourselves. Economic fluctuations, digital transformation, shifting customer needs, and new regulations all affect the conditions under which we operate. In this report, we will describe how we work with our suppliers, customers, partners, and each other to adapt our business to the landscape in which we operate. We will describe the measures we take to being a responsible employer and partner ourselves and how our performance relates to our environmental, social, and governance work. We hope this report reaches our customers and business partners, colleagues, and other stakeholders. platform for sustainability reporting that provides data gathering and management, advanced analysis, strategy development, ESG reporting, and carbon offsetting. We have improved the reporting in Cemasys interface compared to previous years to make it easier for the assigned data responsible person to report data. This year, we have collected data on an annual account opposed to a monthly account, which might affect some of the results compared to previous years. Further, we have corrected data that was miscalculated in the ESG report from 2022/2023, so that we can make a fair and valid comparison of t. The data, where previous results have been corrected in this report, are marked with an *. All data presented in this report is presented in the appendix. Driven by data This report includes data from ABENA’s corporate entities, of which ABENA is the legal owner of more than 50% of all shares during the reporting year. See all entities in our Annual Report. Next year, we will continue to improve our data collection while we are preparing for the upcoming directive, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). We are obliged to report according to the CSRD for the financial year 2025/2026. We have collected data from 28 ABENA entities. An assigned person in each entity is reporting data. The data is collected in CEMAsys, which is an online 5 | ABENA Group | ESG report 2023/2024 ESG supplier survey We have included an ESG Supply Chain control supplier survey results in this year’s reporting. The survey consisted of 50 questions covering general information about our suppliers, as well as information related to their performance in terms of environmental, social, and governance criteria. In total, 520 suppliers were invited to complete our survey, of which 25% responded. We aim to increase the response rate for next year to gain a better understanding of how our suppliers integrate sustainability into their business practices. BECAUSE WE CARE
