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ALT Technologies’ recap of 2020 and look forward to 2021

BY ALT Technologies | 24th January 2021

A robust global team ensured we marched through a tumultuous 2020.

“This year was the worst year I have ever experienced in my career,” Jean-Luc Verstraeten, CEO of ALT Technologies, starts his thrilling year-end letter to the employees. “It has had a gigantic impact on many people’s psychological wellbeing and social lives.
But we managed to get through the storm together.“

ALT is looking forward to the future

2020 was a challenging year for everyone; with some losing jobs and others working from home, it presented us with many challenges. The ALT teams across the globe were lucky enough to continue working, in our factories and from home, to provide customers with various products in a quick turnaround time.

Let us walk you through how this challenging year has been for the ALT family, and what we are looking forward to in 2021.

Production Slowed Down, Only to Ramp up Again Later

“ALT’s financial position has suffered substantially due to the crisis,” continues Mr Verstraeten in his open letter.

With the Automotive and Home Appliances industries being our main customers, we expected to take a hit due to slowing automotive sales and supply chain issues worldwide. Our product deliveries and produced serial parts highlight that we can still report successful product and sale turnovers despite difficulties.

Given the year that 2020 was, ALT still surpassed expectations on manufacturing all our products; highlighting that we can always persevere through difficult times even in economic turmoil.

Overall quantities shipped ended up with 476.805.265 worldwide, which is a decrease of 9% vs 2019 and number of shipments at 7.182 globally in 2020. While worse than predicted, these are still substantial results given the circumstances.

Number of shipments in 2020:

Quantities shipped in 2020:

Our worldwide ship-to-schedule aim for the year was 98% for 2020, and we came in at 97.1%, which, considering the supply chain disruptions during the year, is still a very high figure.

Due to changes in production, employees working apart and more, after a small “dip” in production, by the second half of the year ALT made a comeback to 2 PPMs on average by October 2020 to finish the year strong.

Thorough Actions Resulted in Positive Outcomes

Back in March, our priority was to safeguard our employees while also maintaining equilibrium within the business. Whilst securing healthy conditions for those, who had to be in the office, from specialised air cleansing systems to further safety measures, the CEO and leadership team secured the future of ALT via the necessary fundraising.

“We had a few colleagues who ended up having COVID-19, but thankfully none were seriously sick,” confirmed Mr Verstraeten.

The all-out efforts and hard work resumed throughout the year. In the face of these adversities, ALT was awarded an array of certifications:

  • IATF 16949
  • ISO 14001 and 9001

We aim to improve our systems and processes that provide best-in-class materials, products and solutions. This always starts with our knowledge and need to develop in line with current methods of manufacturing. And we want to ensure the highest quality of all our facilities.

After 2 years of precision and hard work, our Mexico plant has been granted the IATF 16949 certification, concluding our complete manufacturing portfolio being the best-in-class in the highest demanding industries, including automotive. We are thankful and proud of our teams who made this happen.

Industry 4.0, Here We Come!

“We ended this year with much better results than we had initially predicted after the first wave. We even managed to continue investing in the future,” Mr Verstraeten states proudly.

As Industry 4.0 flourishes across industries, the Automotive Industry is genuinely leading the way, and we are proud to be part of this revolution. Our RFID label developments are accelerating year on year, and we are excited to see what the future holds for intelligent labels.

To promote and build this part of our business even further, we added our marketing team. We are now shaping the mould for ALT online content, having started with informative articles, tying in with this new side of our business. Feel free to check out our knowledge base here.

The Only Thing That’s Certain Is Change

“Due to the actions that everyone took, we managed to survive this year. This proves that we are capable of a lot. I am proud of all of you.” concludes Mr Verstraeten in his letter. “We will need to continue to go on as we have and be as careful as possible until the virus is officially gone. This is not easy after a whole year, and it will demand a lot from everyone to stay vigilant.”

Many businesses will continue to face adversity in 2021, but we can live in hope as governments roll out the vaccine. This coming year will see us grow according to our customers’ needs, and face the ever-increasing demands of the industries we serve.

Because we work closely with our partners, we understand that everyone is experiencing the same turmoil and stresses. Not only will we be there as a vital partner to all who require strategic and long-term business and product solutions, but we’ll also be there to discuss any other frustrations during these strange times.

ALT employees are the backbone of this company, and we are grateful for all their hard work and achievements throughout the year. Ensuring we cater to our teams is always a priority for ALT, now more than ever. Our success lies in our customers’ happiness and results, and we will pursue these through extensive research and testing while assessing all parts of the value chain.

It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness

Feel free to get in touch with our team!

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