Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan is the 16th artist to design the international media house’s annual report. Ringier chairman and art collector Michael Ringier traditionally selects artists from around the world to collaborate on the report each year, which is distributed internationally to investors and bankers as well as across the art scene.

Cattelan produced a dedicated version of his art magazine Toilet Paper to accompany Ringier’s report, which was created in 2010 and showcases internet pictures from all areas of the media.

The report was printed onto six single pieces of toilet paper and attached to a roll. The piece was then wrapped in silky papers to ensure the report resembled a standard toilet roll from the outside. The wrap was printed in the same colours as Toilet Paper magazine with dedication to Ringier shown by printing the publishing house’s logo on the wrap.

Ringier head of corporate communications Matthias Graf said: "We use conceptual artists who are free to do whatever they want with the report – we just have to fit in the figures. We need to transport the annual figures to stakeholders, so we had to develop the product to reach a practical compromise of making it look like toilet paper but also being consumable."

He was impressed by a November 2011 retrospective of Cattelan's work at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Of that innovative exhibition, Ringier said: "[Cattelan] effectively reinvented a building that is more than 50 years old. And it is precisely for that reason that we can take him as our role model, because we have a similar task. We have to reinvent a company that will soon be 180 years old."

Ringier has been collecting art for 12 years and, as the fifth generation of the family-owned company, wants to use his passion for art to drive the company forward.

Graf said: "We employ artists to produce the annual reports because it shows that the company is progressive and open, and also shows that we are innovative – we like to think beyond the box."