DGAP-News: va-Q-tec AG

va-Q-tec advances further on its growth and internationalisation path

- Successful project start with leading semiconductor industry supplier

- New head office with production location and fulfilment centre for small boxes opened in the USA

- va-Q-tec VIPs to insulate Germany's future highest apartment building

Würzburg, 8 February 2018. va-Q-tec AG (ISIN DE0006636681 / WKN 663668), a technologically leading supplier of highly efficient products and solutions in the thermal insulation and cold chain logistics area, informs about its positive business trends since the start of 2018. During the first weeks of the year, va-Q-tec achieved significant progress in its "Services" and "Products" operating segments, and further advanced its internationalisation.

Dr. Joachim Kuhn, CEO der va-Q-tec, comments on the company's start to 2018: "The launch of a project with a semiconductor industry supplier underscores our dynamic start to the current financial year. Continued pleasing business trends in our vacuum insulation panels business - our industrial base - also establish good conditions to continue our success story this year. The importance of stable-temperature logistics solutions is growing massively worldwide - a fact also reflected in the opening of our US site and the further expansion of our international network."

In January 2018 va-Q-tec successfully launched a project in the temperature-controlled air freight transportation area with a leading semiconductor industry system supplier, enabling a reference customer with a major impact across the entire sector to be acquired. These extremely complex production machines play an important role in manufacturing microchips. The customer utilises the va-Q-tec service to transport temperature-sensitive optical and mechanical systems more securely and considerably more cost-efficiently between production sites in Europe and Asia than previously. The va-Q-tec technology ensures the continuity of these stable-temperature supply chains, including in extreme temperature conditions.

The project launch marks a dynamic start for the company to 2018 and underscores a cross-sector trend in logistics processes - products in many industries are becoming higher-performing, but often at the same time more temperature-sensitive and increasingly need to be transported in temperature-controlled conditions.

va-Q-tec services ("Serviced Rental") enable customers to operate secure as well as cost- and energy-efficient cold chains worldwide. To this end, va-Q-tec offers and operates for this purpose an international fleet of rental containers ("va-Q-tainers") and high-performance thermal transport boxes, which are benefiting from exceptional demand from pharmaceutical and biotech customers. Through optimally integrating high-performance insulation with vacuum insulation panels (VIPs) and the storage of thermal energy by means of phase change materials (PCMs), va-Q-tec packaging systems hold temperatures constant for up to 200 hours without external energy supply. va-Q-tec meanwhile operates a total of 26 network stations worldwide. Three further network stations are being opened this year in Mexico City, Montevideo and the United Arab Emirates. va-Q-tec plans to top up its fleet of rental containers by a further 500 units to a total of 2,000 units in 2018. The Group already operates the largest fleet of high-performance thermal containers of this type and the second largest in the overall market. This planned expansion will enable va-Q-tec to create the foundation for further growth in its Services segment.

With the opening of a new branch operation in the USA in January 2018, va-Q-tec reached an important milestone in its internationalisation overall and the expansion of its business in North America in particular. Especially the production of small thermal boxes and sales operations are to occur locally from the USA in the future. The new fulfilment centre in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, forms a central element of the va-Q-tec growth strategy, as its proximity to Philadelphia, New York and Boston and their renowned biotechnology, healthcare and pharmaceutical hubs provides ideal infrastructures. This proximity enables the company to offer its customers even faster and more reliable service. The company sees strong demand for high-performance thermal transport boxes in the USA and, with its new fulfilment centre, is becoming a full-service provider in the temperature-controlled transportation of high-quality products in North America. The company's North American business, which already comprises several millions of euros, is to be considerably expanded as a consequence. Especially sectors such as biotechnology and pharmaceuticals face significant challenges in terms of ever more stringent regulatory requirements made of product safety and temperature-controlled transport chains. In 2020, 27 of the top 50 highest selling medications worldwide will already require warehousing and transportation at temperatures of 2-8 degrees. Innovative va-Q-tec high-performance packaging products ensure such cold chains are fully compliant. Furthermore, the new head office in the USA comprises a network station for container rental, which enables, for example, the customer from the semiconductor area to be supplied with pre-cooled containers.

The Asia-Pacific region is seen as a further major growth market, and va-Q-tec is significantly intensifying its activities in this region. For the first time, the company was represented at the important sector trade fair, the Biologistics World Asia in Singapore, where it announced the start of a strategic partnership with SFS Pharma Logistics in the APAC region. The partnership allows va-Q-tec to expand its global network to include several local fulfilment centres for logistics for small thermal boxes in the Asia-Pacific region and strengthen its position as a leading supplier in temperature-controlled logistics solutions.

In its Products segment - comprising the sale of vacuum insulation panels (VIPs) - the Group reported continued strong demand at the start of the year for high-performance insulation for refrigeration equipment and storage water heaters. Blue-chip customers of va-Q-tec utilise VIPs to upgrade their products to the highest energy efficiency classes through better insulation. At the start of 2018, a leading German supplier of building services technology already converted all its range of heating system boilers to va-Q-tec VIP superinsulation, for instance.

In the construction insulation area, va-Q-tec achieved an important project success with the Grand Tower in Frankfurt's Europaviertel district. In the building - which will be Germany's highest apartment building in the future - glass façade elements are being insulated utilising va-Q-tec VIPs. The project deploys thin VIPs to deliver highly efficient insulation as part of its aim to realise a building offering a maximum of rentable residential space. Moreover, in projects across the whole of Europe glass façade elements are being insulated on a space-saving basis with va-Q-tec VIPs, such as at a shopping mall in Lucerne. va-Q-tec is benefiting from growing demand for VIPs in the inner-city area. Deliveries to large-scale construction projects in London were intensified in early 2018, for example.

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IR contact
va-Q-tec AG
Felix Rau
Telephone: +49 931 35942 - 2973
Email: Felix.Rau@va-Q-tec.com

cometis AG
Claudius Krause
Telephone: +49 611 - 20 585 5-28
Email: krause@cometis.de

About va-Q-tec
va-Q-tec is a leading supplier of high-performance products and solutions in thermal insulation and cold chain logistics. The company develops, produces and markets innovative, thin vacuum insulation panels (VIPs) as well as phase change materials (PCMs) for the reliable and energy-efficient controlling and insulation of temperature. In addition, va-Q-tec produces passive thermal packaging systems (containers and boxes) through optimally integrating VIPs and PCMs, which can maintain constant temperatures, depending on type, between 24 and more than 200 hours, without external energy input. To implement temperature-sensitive logistics chains, va-Q-tec - within a global partner network - operates a fleet of rental containers and boxes meeting demanding thermal protection standards. Along with healthcare & logistics as the main market, va-Q-tec addresses the following further markets: Appliance & Food, Technics & Industry, Building and Mobility. The high-growth company, which was founded in 2001, is based in Würzburg, Germany. Further information is available at: www.va-q-tec.com