BY ALT Technologies | 24th January 2021
Another year has flown by, which means it’s time for our annual reflection on the year that has been; 2022 edition.
Like many companies and individuals, we too were faced with making difficult decisions as inflation soared ever higher, the rising fuel costs, and supply chain security.
However, 2022 was a massive milestone year for us as we celebrated 20 years as an independent company! That is 20 years through various economic downturns, vast experience in the ever-expanding durable goods and automotive industries, and many celebratory cakes and treats as our employees come along on the journey!
Jean-Luc Verstraeten, our ALT Technologies CEO, comments on 2022; “It seems that recently year-on-year, we face an array of challenges. But we are not alone, nor are they new experiences for us, as the world is going through tumultuous times and change. To persevere, we must adapt, as we always do, focus on what we do best, and keep showing up daily for our ALT team and customers.”
The elephant in the room must be addressed first and foremost; the rise in the cost of materials and supplies. Last year, post covid shortages were very much felt. In 2019 we had diesel gate; since then, it has been a non-stop chain of events that has been ongoing for many years. Last year’s inflation crisis is continuing. Because of these issues, we have had to raise our costs after much debate and consideration. They say we need to share the burden, and the market conditions are not tolerating the requested lower prices.
Like every player in the market, many of these cost impacts are out of our control. As always, we focus on perfecting our processes, working with our customers to get the best product to market as possible and continuing to build new business ideas. We are hiring two new business development managers in Q1, with lots of market and industry experience.
We also play the long game; the market is only sometimes prepared to absorb these costs. If the market doesn’t absorb, in the long term, it will impact investments because there won’t be money for new products. So we don’t take corners because we know we can maintain equilibrium by going through this tough time to seek out better investments in the future.
While the challenges above certainly made for vital discussions, we are by no means down and out about how 2022 went for us.
In September, we celebrated 20 years as an independent company. This is added to 30 years and counting of experience with our previous company ties. It is a fantastic accomplishment for us to achieve, and we still have many of our team members who have been with us from the beginning!
Another significant marker for us is 1 PPM delivered in 2022. Our aim is always two or fewer, so to get 1 in an already stressful year is an achievement. We also had no late deliveries to customers for 2022. We have streamlined our lean processes for over 20 years.
We continued to build on our sustainability portfolio and ESG guidelines by reducing CO2 emissions for our Netherlands facility by isolating the whole building and using green electricity. In our Romanian facility, we are about to implement solar panels. In 2023, we are also in the process of acquiring a certificate stating several of our materials are recycled and approved for use in automotive applications.
Like Covid times, we aim to build the market expertise among our current team members and retain all employees. Our new business development managers will lead the way with our electronics protection teams to provide customer-specific solutions. As the market is ever-changing, we are excited to see how our business development managers and engineers create new bespoke applications.
The last twenty years have come and gone, and we expect the next twenty will be here in no time. Pursuing the growth of our supplier and customer relationships is always at the forefront of our business. We are excited about the continued business development and will see what processes we can build upon.
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