Production and logistics

NORMA Group produces and distributes more than 40,000 products and operates 19 production sites worldwide. In addition, it has a network of numerous distribution, sales, and competence centers designed to ensure timely delivery to its customers in their respective regions.

Production and capacity utilization

The utilization rate of NORMA Group's production and distribution facilities varies across its global locations. In countries where NORMA Group's business is still developing, the floor space utilization of production plants can be further increased in some cases. Forward-looking investment decisions ensure that sufficient space is available for

flexible production expansion. In industrialized countries and markets where NORMA Group has a long-standing market position, production areas and capacities are largely fully utilized. NORMA Group's goal is to optimize production processes through efficiency improvements to create additional capacity, wherever possible, within the existing footprint.

The utilization of the production facilities can be varied according to customer demand and order volume. Within each product category, numerous products with different specifications can be manufactured on the existing equipment with minimal retooling. This allows production to be aligned with current market demand.

Optimizing global site capacities is a key component of the transformation initiated in 2025.

Against this backdrop, NORMA Group further adapted its production landscape in 2025 and implemented measures in the Asia-Pacific region. In South Jiangsu, China, two previously adjacent plants were consolidated. The production site in Wuxi was closed at the end of September 2025. Manufacturing capacities, the majority of the machinery, and the PDE laboratory were relocated to the Changzhou and Qingdao plants. In China, the relocation of production from the Guangzhou site to Changzhou was also finalized at the end of 2025. Furthermore, at the end of October 2025, NORMA Group integrated a distribution center in Adelaide into an existing site in Melbourne as planned.

In the Americas region, NORMA Group aims to centralize its metal production in Juarez, Mexico. To this end, a new site in Juarez was leased in fiscal year 2025, where metal products can be manufactured more efficiently and with more modern equipment. By the end of 2027, metal production will be transferred from the old Juarez site and the Tijuana site to the new Juarez facility.

By implementing these measures, NORMA Group is focusing on increasing efficiency and adapting its presence even more closely to customer demand.

In addition to these structural adjustments, internal process optimizations and external conditions also shaped operational development in fiscal year 2025. At the beginning of the year, NORMA Germany implemented a company-wide standardized ERP system. This temporarily led to increased expenses, special freight costs for internal supply and customer deliveries, and general limitations in on-time delivery. The cause was temporary, technically related delays in logistics processing.

Furthermore, geopolitical developments impacted supply chains: While the ongoing war in Ukraine continued to disrupt deliveries to Russia and Belarus, the continuing war in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, as well as the conflicts in the Red Sea, had no significant impact on supply security in fiscal year 2025. The effects of these conflicts on supply chains are continuously monitored, supported by digital risk warning systems. In addition, extensive advance planning of affected container shipments between Europe and Asia mitigates longer transit times.

Production capacities optimized, expanded and further automated in fiscal year 2025

NORMA Group invested in various areas of its business activities during the 2025 fiscal year. The table below provides a more detailed overview of the most significant investments in 2025.

Continuous optimization of the entire value chain

At NORMA Group, all internal process steps in the value chain are constantly examined for optimization potential. The Global Operational Excellence Management System is an important tool for meeting this objective. This system is used to analyze existing processes, identify potential for improvements, introduce the appropriate measures for implementation and realize cost saving projects. As a result, many processes have already been automated and standardized in recent years, so that significant economies of scale have been achieved.

NORMA Group has been implementing NORMA Group Production System (NPS) at all of its production plants worldwide since 2014. The goal of the NPS is to increase operational performance, safety, delivery reliability and quality at the plants and to identify and realize further cost savings. NORMA Group uses a “toolbox” of lean methods for this purpose. These include the 5S methodology, the daily Gemba walk, setup time optimization using SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Die) and TPM (Total Productive Maintenance). As part of the SCM transformation at NORMA Group, these and other tools, such as Kanban, are also being introduced in logistics. Furthermore, a standardized problem-solving process ensures that internal and external customer complaints are processed more quickly and effectively.

Customer proximity and supply chain security

As part of its supply chain management, NORMA Group relies on short and efficient value chains to reduce costs, risks, and dependencies. Production sites organized close to customers enable faster service of regional needs and better management of operational risks. At the beginning of 2025, announced tariffs and high demand for container capacity negatively impacted maritime transport, leading to temporary bottlenecks. However, with the global economic slowdown, the pressure on transport capacity eased later in the year. For the Group, a key objective remains the ability to respond flexibly to changes in customer demand, despite potential delays. This is also addressed by the "Step Up" program, implemented in mid-2023. In fiscal year 2025, targeted measures, for example, resulted in efficiencies in supply chain management across all regions. This positive development puts NORMA Group in a better position to support the sales of its products in the future.

Despite the demand for short logistics routes, cross-border deliveries are often unavoidable for NORMA Group in order to meet customers’ needs and requirements at all times. Optimized and secure customs processes are therefore indispensable. For this reason, NORMA Group participates in various customs trade partnership programs in the US and the EU, for example. Through supply chain security programs, in particular the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) and Customs Trade Partnership against Terrorism (C-TPAT), which are part of the global Compliance Program, NORMA Group strives to ensure a legally compliant supply chain. By conducting regular audits of all its business partners, the Company is able to rule out the supply of legally sanctioned third parties. In addition, internal organizational instructions and regular reviews ensure compliance with the relevant statutory export control regulations.