A report that guides the strategy rather than merely illustrating it

VAT Group AG, headquartered in Haag, is the global market leader in vacuum valves and supplies cutting-edge manufacturers of semiconductors and coating equipment. At Capital Markets Day 2025, the company presented its growth strategy through 2029 and its ambitions beyond that date. The 2025 Annual Report reflects this milestone and has been redesigned in terms of both content and layout.

At the center is a fold-out page that presents the four levels of the strategy side by side: the three growth phases - from market leadership in vacuum valves, through growth in adjacent fields, to system solutions after 2030 - along with the market drivers, core competencies, and financial goals. What would take many slides in a presentation is condensed into a single image across four open pages.

The infographic series now focuses on four specific drivers: market growth, technological development, the advantage of brand awareness, and market leadership. Each driver begins with a statement and then supports it with data from market research, technology roadmaps, and the company’s own business operations. A collection of graphics has been transformed into a chain of reasoning.

The Annual Report, Corporate Governance Report, Compensation Report, and Financial Report are aimed at different audiences. The table of contents is therefore limited to four image tiles, and each section begins with its own introductory paragraph and a detailed table of contents. The color scheme further aids navigation as readers flip through the pages: dark teal for strategy and success factors, lime green for key statements and metrics, and light blue for governance and committees.

The cover incorporates the capsule shape from the brand identity and pairs it with a bold display typeface. The capsule shape reappears in graphics, data tables, and image details, tying together the cover, the strategic graphic, and the data section. The key figures are printed on a cover flap that remains open throughout the reading experience. Photographs from Haag, Arad, and Penang illustrate the global manufacturing operations discussed in the text.

The design comes from the same source as the printed report. The capsule shape displays the key metrics, dark teal and lime green guide the reader through the sections, and each element has its own screen. Bar charts show the trend over five years, donut charts can be clicked through segment by segment, and the success factors appear as animated graphics - such as the progression from increasingly smaller feature sizes, from 1,500 nanometers in 1988 to 2 nanometers today.

The annual report includes the sustainability strategy and materiality matrix from the dual materiality analysis in a separate chapter. The sustainability report is published as a standalone document using the same design style and is organized into sections on strategy and governance, facts and figures, and appendices. A summary is distributed to employees and other stakeholders in seven languages at all production and sales locations.

The reporting includes the annual report, a summary report in German and English, the sustainability report and its multilingual summaries, as well as the online report.

• Content and Design Concept for the Report
• Development of Graphics and Data Visualizations
• Design
• Production, including oversight of the printing process