Corporate culture

Quality is our top priority alongside service. Zapp stands for reproducible quality, outstanding products, efficient processes and the best results. The success of our company is based on the fact that we live common values and have goals. We are a family company with a history of more than 300 years around steel.

»On the basis of tradition, to pursue the new«, wrote Engelbert Zapp Sr. in 1730. This enjoyment of new developments has become an essential part of the company's philosophy. Today the company has around 1,300 employees worldwide, with production sites in the United States, the United Kingdom and Sweden. Numerous service centers and a close sales network round off this service in all important sales markets.

Mission statement

OUR STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS SUCCESS

The Zapp Group has had a decisive influence on progress in the steel industry for the past 300 years. To this day, our continuous innovative power provides us with a leading technological position in the area of high-precision cold forming and high-performance materials. Our goal is to position Zapp as a solutions based organization so every customer achieves a lasting competitive advantage.

This statement contains the values we believe in as a Company, the values that are important to us, and the way we conduct ourselves, both internally and externally, in order to achieve our goals. It contains statements of the cornerstones of our success:

• Strategy
• Organization
• Employees
• Corporate culture

To us, this statement is an obligation and an incentive for a value-adding and respectful partnership with our customers, suppliers and employees, and toward our social and corporate environment.

STRATEGY: ORIENTATION

To us, progress means constantly improving the way in which we fulfill the needs and interests of our customers, employees, owners and suppliers. Our corporate strategy is oriented around this. By concentrating on our core business, we secure long-term success as innovators and as a Company.

• Our core business is precision cold forming and high-performance materials
• Our progress-oriented corporate strategy lends our activities a clear focus
• Innovations are the guarantors of our success
• Economic efficiency secures our independence and the preservation of the Company

ORGANIZATION: IMPLEMENTATION

The market itself is the standard of measure on which our organization is based. The highest standards of quality and precision make us a considerable competitive advantage for our customers. Our value-oriented processes are uncompromisingly geared to this goal. Close collaboration in a spirit of trust with our long-time partners, coupled with interdisciplinary teamwork throughout the entire Company, ensure high-quality and economically efficient results.

• Our process-oriented organization combines our industry, consulting and implementation competence
• We are proud of the high quality and precision of our products and services
• For our customers, we want to provide a lasting competitive advantage
• Longstanding teamwork in a spirit of trust links us with our partners
• With us, teamwork and a cross-functional effort help shorten the information and decision-making cycles
• Within the scope of our operating procedures, we attach the utmost value to workplace safety and pay attention to our
  employees' health

EMPLOYEES: HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT

The employees in our Company shape our progress and ensure our success. We offer a framework in which individuals can contribute their capabilities and potential while systematically working to develop further. For qualified employees, we offer interesting prospects within the Zapp Group.

• Our employees' qualifications and dedication are the most important drivers behind our success

CORPORATE CULTURE: TRUST

We visibly practice the values for which we stand. We create a climate of incentives and mutual trust. As a socially responsible Company, we contribute toward improving our economic and social surroundings while preserving the natural environment.

• Our corporate culture creates trust and provides incentives
• Our actions as a Company and employer are responsible

WE DESIGN OUR PROGRESS AND A SUCCESS-ORIENTED FAIR COOPERATION

In our medium-sized Company, it is the employees who shape our progress and form the basis for our success. We offer framework conditions under which it is the individual and his or her team that matter, conditions that facilitate strengths-based work and in which talents and potentials can be further developed. In this connection, we attach importance to:

• Concentration on the essential matters at hand
• Consistent implementation
• Passion for performance and development
• Meaningfulness and identity

Our employees are expected to show initiative and take responsibility for seizing upon existing opportunities and offerings, and to implement these in the spirit of these values and beliefs in the context of their everyday tasks and teamwork. They have the active support of Company management in this effort.

CONCENTRATION ON THE ESSENTIAL MATTERS AT HAND

The priorities of the work we do are geared to the corporate strategy and the goals that derive from it. We are the engine of innovation and progress on behalf of our customers.

• We take a target- and result-oriented approach to the work we do
• We are curious, creative and innovative

OPTIMUM RESULTS THROUGH RESOLUTE IMPLEMENTATION

We attach the greatest possible importance to resolute and efficient implementation, because we can only expect lasting success if you also deliver what you promise. There are efficient structures and processes in place to ensure this. Our modern workstations offer a variety of options for action and modifications, with wide latitude for independence and individual initiative. A safe and healthy work environment is of particular importance to us in this regard.

• We conduct ourselves on behalf of the Company in a manner that is independent, rooted in individual initiative and
  implementation-oriented
• We are one team and work together fairly and in a spirit of trust
• We communicate with one another openly, honestly and understandably
• We pay attention to our safety and health

PASSION FOR PERFORMANCE AND DEVELOPMENT

We consider well-trained, dedicated and competent employees as the most important driver behind our success. Through a strengthsoriented approach to human resources development, we support our employees in their professional and personal development while offering them attractive prospects with interesting opportunities for development.

• We maintain our performance through needs-based development of our capabilities and potentials
• We work with ambition and passion

TRUST AND INTEGRITY THROUGH MEANINGFULNESS AND VALUES

The things we do, both in-house and outwardly, reflect the values of the Company. With integrity, trust, respect and tolerance, we contribute to a living and progress-oriented corporate culture.

• We stand behind the values of our Company and breathe life into them in our day-to-day work

OUR UNDERSTANDING OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR RESULTS AND GOALS AND EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT

The management of the Zapp Group has jointly drawn up and approved these values and beliefs. It commits them to a shared view of leadership, a view guided by their responsibility for results and employees. With this purpose in mind, the guidelines are categorized based on the four underlying and complementary roles of an executive:

• Executive as visionary and strategist
• Executive as coordinator and "doer"
• Executive as coach and mentor and
• Executive as role model and integrator

VISIONARY AND STRATEGIST: FOCUS ON THE ESSENTIAL

Through our corporate strategy and the goals that derive from it, we create a clear focus that leads to a shared and future-oriented approach throughout the entire Company. With clear goals and priorities, we provide a convincing and reasoned basis for our day-today decisions.

• We orient our areas of responsibility around the corporate strategy
• We agree to goals derived from the strategy and see to it that priorities are clear
• We provide convincing reasoning for our decisions

COORDINATOR AND "DOER": CONSISTENT IMPLEMENTATION

Through efficient and error-free operating procedures, we ensure high-quality and economically efficient results. Our interdisciplinary cooperation in highly motivated teams, together with effective communication, ensures a consistent and successful implementation process. Here we attach great importance to our employees' safety and health.

• We ensure efficient structures and processes
• We work together on an interdisciplinary basis and communicate effectively with one another
• We implement our plans consistently and with economic efficiency
• We make sure that safety regulations are observed and pay attention to the quality of life of our employees

COACH AND MENTOR: EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT

We are aware of and appreciate our employees' performance. In questions of staffing and development, we consistently orient our approach around their strengths while creating long-term prospects for further development of their talents and potentials. In this connection, we view our role as that of "primary human resource developer" for our employees and personally take time to fulfill this mission.

• We provide the conditions for sustainable, solid performance
• We develop and promote our employees' talents on an individual basis

ROLE MODEL AND INTEGRATOR: TRUST AND INTEGRITY

To a considerable extent, our corporate culture is a function of our behavior. Consequently, as executives, we are particularly called upon to serve as a role model in applying our values and beliefs, and to visibly put these into practice in the exercise of our day-to-day management responsibilities. That is the key to trust and integrity in our Company.

• We visibly practice the values we all share
• We enable our employees to experience their work as meaningful and themselves as significant

During its more-than-300-year history, the Zapp Group has stood for values and business principles such as tradition, integrity, respect, reliability and sustainability.

As a guiding principle, the code describes Zapp's behavior, which is shaped by these values and business principles, within the framework of applicable laws and regulations in its external relations with its customers, business partners and competitors; in its internal relations with its employees; and in the awareness of its social responsibility toward society and environment.

code of conduct