Nordzucker_GB 03-04_E_.pd 1 - Nordzucker AG

Report of the Supervisory Board
The financial year 2003/2004 was
characterized by an ongoing discussion
of the changes taking place in EU
agricultural policy, and, in particular, by
the decision to close down the Schleswig
factory at the end of the 2003 campaign,
and also by the bioethanol decision.
In the period under review, Goetz
von Engelbrechten vacated his position
on the Nordzucker AG managing board,
which he had chaired for many years,
and assumed his new function in the
company’s supervisory board. The
Nordzucker AG supervisory board is greatly
obliged to Goetz von Engelbrechten,
who is credited for having developed
Nordzucker AG from an important
regional sugar producer to the second
largest group in Europe with global activities.
His successor to the post of the
chairman of the Nordzucker AG managing
board, Dr. Ulrich Nöhle, took office
on 5 September 2003. The supervisory
board is convinced that with the joint
efforts of Dr. Ulrich Nöhle and his colleagues
on the managing board,
Nordzucker AG will continue to develop
for the common good of its shareholders,
and in particular the beet growing farmers
and its staff.
In a total of nine meetings, the supervisory
board was informed of the business
and strategic development of
Nordzucker AG, as well as of any major
events and transactions. The supervisory
board members exercised their advisory
functions for the Nordzucker AG managing
board and their supervisory functions
for the company’s management. In this
regard it was provided with regular and
detailed information on the corporate
and business policy, corporate strategy,
company management, as well as the
financial development of Nordzucker AG
and transactions of major importance by
the Nordzucker AG managing board. All
matters subject to the approval of the
supervisory board were submitted to the
board for its decision.
The supervisory board members were
in a process of constant deliberation on
the options presented by the EU commission
for reform of the European sugar
market regulations, as well as the consequences
the current WTO negotiations
may entail for the north German sugar
industry. The supervisory board fully
endorses the aim put forward by the
managing board of maintaining the competitive
strength of Nordzucker AG in an
evolving market. Concentration on sugar
as our core activity, and the expansion of
this core activity, our competence in the
sweetening sector, including the production
of alternative sweeteners, as well as a
strict expenses discipline, were elements
that were discussed in detail. All corporate
efforts are directed at safeguarding,
and increasing, the earning power of our
company on a long-term basis.
The supervisory board intensively
discussed the factory structure. The most
decisive resolution adopted in the year
under review was the one concerning the
closure of the Schleswig plant after the
2003 campaign. At the same time it was
pointed out that no further closures are
intended up to, and including, the 2005
campaign. One board member had
brought an action before the regional
court of Braunschweig, appealing against
the resolution of the board of 19 March
2003 to close the factory. Additional
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