Statement by the Chairman
Statement by the Chairman
The 2017 financial year at Europlex focused on innovation, rejuvenation and ambition.
Innovation: to Europlex, this means using all available knowledge to pull out all the stops with brand-new products and materials. Thanks to our in-house research and motivation we succeeded last year in achieving productions like CNC milling and turning with highly specific materials such as Filtron E800, Plexiglas LED OE012 XI, PEEK, and other new materials.
Additionally, our company has spent the last months participating in a genuine rejuvenation cure. We have communicated this in collaboration with our own as well as our external staff. The rejuvenation of Europlex has been accomplished: in the field of production as well as with regard to our website and social media.
Our ambition was the next agenda point. In addition to focusing on turnover and gross margin, we also wanted to devote ourselves to the greatest extent possible to our relationship with our staff and to sustainable entrepreneurship. One of our goals was to reduce waste derived from paper and raw materials, and to achieve energy savings. We succeeded in this mission with a detailed plan. As a result, our waste production and our energy use were both cut in half. Here are some examples of our new, sustainable policy: the installation of LED lighting in 50% of our workstations, targeted stock management, scanning documents instead of printing them and the recycling of scrap material to make jigs and tools for in-company use.
Additionally, we spoke with ‘our’ people about improving the atmosphere at work. They told us what they needed, each their own discipline, in order to perform to the best of their abilities. The feeling that we are a close-knit family ensures that we can all set to work efficiently.
The last agenda point is our turnover and gross margin. Our facilities, our staff, the motivation demonstrated by everyone and our loyal as well as our new customers: all of this contributed to our ability to achieve a growth of over 20%, both in terms of turnover and gross margin.
We would therefore like to express our warm and sincere gratitude. To our motivated staff, because they perform their tasks each day with such commitment and dedication. And to our loyal as well as our new customers, for their support, and also our reliable suppliers who fully support our ambitions. Last but not least, I would also like to thank our commercial marketing specialists, because they are the ones responsible for Europlex’s outstanding image.
Our goals for the 2018 financial year? To achieve a growth of 15%. And I can tell you that, according to our forecasts, we will be exceeding this figure by far!
Dirk Vannerom
Chairman Europlex
