A message from the Chairman and the CEO

Dear shareholders,

At Coloplast, we have a mission to make life easier for people with intimate healthcare needs. This year, we continued to help more than two million users.

During the Board of Directors’ strategy days in June 2024, we had the pleasure of meeting one of our users and a three-time Olympic gold medallist, Pete Reed. Pete started using intermittent catheters after becoming paralysed from the chest down in 2019 and switched to Luja™ in August 2023. Luja is our new intermittent catheter designed to address key risk factors related to Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs), which are a major challenge for users. We were all very moved by how much Luja has meant to Pete: ‘(…) switching to Luja, I’ve seen a dramatic reduction in my UTIs*(…). The number one thing in my life since having a spinal cord injury that I would not do without is Luja. Who would have thought I’d be saying that about 80 small holes (…) I’ve got my life back.’ Pete’s story reminds us why we are here. To help our users live the life they want by providing them with innovative, clinically differentiated technologies to manage their condition. It is how we create value and how we continue to lead in Chronic Care.

Financial year 2023/24 highlights

We delivered another solid year, with 8% organic growth, an EBIT margin before special items of 27% and growth in operating profit of 6%. These numbers reflect a strong year in Chronic Care in Europe and Emerging markets and a year with double-digit growth in Voice and Respiratory Care and Advanced Wound Dressings. Kerecis grew around 35% and continued to gain share in the biologics market.

Based on our company’s financial performance in 2023/24, the Board of Directors will propose a total dividend of 22.00 Danish kroner per share at the Annual General Meeting in December 2024.

2023/24 was a year of launches, with a significant number of products launched across our business areas. Innovation remains at the core of our business model and a key driver of organic growth. In Continence Care, we continued the rollout of Luja, now available for both men and women. In Ostomy Care, we strengthened our SenSura® Mio brand and launched Heylo™, a novel digital leakage notification system, in the UK. In Advanced Wound Care, we launched Biatain® Silicone Fit, a silicone dressing for the US market, while Kerecis continued to expand its Shield® brand.

We have a lot to be proud of this year, but we also encountered some significant challenges. The establishment of a new distribution centre for the US market led to supply disruptions and extraordinary costs which impacted both our customers and our financial performance, particularly in Chronic Care. Interventional Urology grew below expectations because of competitive pressure. We are clearly not satisfied with these developments. But our focus is to learn from these setbacks and come back stronger.

Inflation continued to challenge our profitability, but as we look towards next year, we expect inflation to come down across cost categories. Beyond inflation, continued investments in capacity expansion to support our future growth also impacted our cost development. We continue to diversify our manufacturing footprint, with the ongoing ramp up of our manufacturing sites in Costa Rica and the establishment of a new site in Portugal, expected to be operational in 2026. Currencies also posed a headwind in the year.

Strive25 strategic update

Strive25 marks a chapter in our company’s history with significant investments in organic and inorganic initiatives for long-term value creation. In addition to continuing many of the activities that have made us successful in the past, like innovation, we also added three new assets through M&A: Atos Medical, Kerecis and Intibia™. In essence, we are building four growth platforms in 1) Chronic Care, 2) Voice and Respiratory Care, 3) Advanced Wound Care and 4) Interventional Urology, which share some of the same characteristics. First, they are all in attractive end markets that are structurally growing. Second, technology and innovation are the key to winning in these segments. Finally, we are either the category leader or aspiring category leader.