The year has once again changed and we are facing a new set of circumstances. It has not been long since my last greeting, but a lot has happened in the meantime.
Last time, as I was thanking our good fortune of being spared from the effects of the pandemic, I forgot to knock on wood. Shortly thereafter, the difficulties hit us full force. When the situation was at its worst, 30% of our production workers were either in quarantine or sick at the same time. To tackle the challenging situation, the first thing we did was to talk to our customers, who not only understood our plight but offered concrete assistance to overcome it. Plans were changed and schedules were revised – through cooperation and support from our customers, we got the ball rolling once more!
Our amazing employees, who were flexible when things got tough and adapted as best they could, also played an important role. At the same time, we saw a true display of the famous Finnish tenacity and the unwavering zeal for which the Ostrobothnian region is known. We wanted to show that we could handle the difficulties and that is exactly what we did. We managed to maintain the reliability of our deliveries at almost the 100% where it stood at the end of the year.
For that, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to our customers and staff for their cooperation, support and flexibility! We are now back on the normal track and, as we predicted, the coming year looks like it will be another year of growth. Despite the component shortages plaguing the field, our company and customers are doing well and the order books are looking great.
We have made sure to focus on investments every year, as they help drive our operations forwards. This year will be no different, since we will be getting a new FMS welding cell, tank washer and new automation for the paint shop. As such, we are currently investing heavily in increasing our degree of automation, which we want to leverage to reduce routine and unergonomic work tasks and focus our staff’s resources on information-based work.
In connection to this growth, we have also made changes in the organisation of sales. We have achieved a turnover of 20 million euros with an entrepreneur-driven approach and the support of the professionals in our management team. We are currently at a point where moving forwards means the hiring of new in-house talent and expertise.
To that end, I will be focusing my previously somewhat scattered resources on the strategic development of Relicomp and making room for Relicomp’s new sales manager, Petteri Perälä. We sat down with Petteri many times to discuss the company’s future and, with his support, we will be able to steer Relicomp towards entirely new paths of growth.
I wish all of you an amazing new year!
Best regards
Marko Jyllilä, CEO
Petteri Perälä, Sales Manager