CEO comment: A new year brings new opportunities
Being able to quickly adapt our business to changes in our environment has never been as important as it is now.
In many ways, 2022 has been an unusual year. After many decades of peace in our vicinity, a war now rages in Ukraine, affecting all of us. New security conditions, disruption to our supply chains and shortages of materials and energy, which have brought higher prices, have changed our day-to-day lives and our way of thinking.
A clear example is the energy issue. Electricity is plentiful in Sweden and with electricity prices having been historically low, we have grown accustomed to a system allowing us to pay little attention to how electricity is used. We now have an entirely different situation, suddenly having to consider the cheapest time of day for washing clothes and perhaps generating our own electricity.
For an installation company like Assemblin, these developments have entailed increased demand for services in energy efficiency, intelligent products and green property technology. Our investments in automation solutions and BMS, expertise in fine tuning, geothermal heating systems, solar cells and electric car charging have turned out to be entirely appropriate. We are particularly pleased that the electric car charging concept we developed in-house achieved tremendous impact during the year, both among smaller customers, such as tenant-owner associations, as well as with major corporations with extensive vehicle fleets preparing for realignment to electric.
The share of automation operations at Assemblin is higher than at any other installation company and, combined with our strong focus on green technology, this has contributed to our increased sales and favourable order intake. Our vision of creating intelligent and sustainable installation solutions is definitely appropriate for the times. Furthermore, we chose to invest specifically in two other high-growth niche segments in 2022: cooling and security. We have enjoyed great success in these areas too.
While pursuing these focused market investments, we have not slackened in our other commitments to our customers, shareholders and financiers. We continue to work purposefully, focusing strongly on quality, development, earnings and cash flow. This is all interconnected, and it is my personal belief that our performance in recent years is attributable to a careful balancing of decentralised entrepreneurship and customer focus on the one hand and centralised support and follow-up on the other. I believe we have found a good recipe favouring motivation, commitment and development in our operations, while maintaining the structures and governance mechanisms needed to benefit from economies of scale and to control the risks inherent in a larger company.
None of this would have been possible without our amazing employees, nor without talented partners and inspiring customers. I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your commitment over this intense year, and I look forward to advancing our operations further over the coming year. Despite our tremendous pride in what we have built and achieved to date, we remain keenly aware that no installation company is better than its most recently secured and completed assignment. This insight spurs us on, driving us to continuously develop our operations and service.
Stockholm in December, 2022
Mats Johansson
President and CEO, Asssemblin
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