Annual General Meeting 2010 – CEO’s speech
Summary of the CEO’s speech at ProfilGruppen’s Annual General Meeting 2010
During his speech at the AGM, ProfilGruppen’s President and CEO Nils Arthur reported on market development, the past year’s challenges and strategic direction.
Nils Arthur began by commenting on 2009. He noted that the year had been exceptional in ProfilGruppen’s history in several ways. For the first time since the company was founded, a negative result was reported for the full year.
Mr. Arthur then outlined the measures taken to turn around the results. The workforce was reduced by a further 35 people during the year, representing an overall reduction of around 30% since the fourth quarter of 2008. Since June 2009, the majority of officials have been working a four-day week. In total, the cost base has been reduced by SEK 45 million on an annualized basis from the second quarter of 2009.
The importance of a strong corporate culture and business acumen to succeed in the above changes was highlighted. Efforts to raise safety awareness in the company have led to the lowest number of occupational accidents in 2009 since the company was founded.
Nils Arthur then described the market situation in Europe where, according to the European Aluminum Association, the market for aluminum profiles is estimated to have declined by about 20 percent in 2009. The decline in 2008 amounted to just under 10 percent. The price of aluminum raw material, which is priced on the London Metal Exchange, rose by 50 percent during the year.
The development of ProfilGruppen’s delivery volumes from 2007 to 2009 was commented on. Also how the shares to industries and countries have changed. Furthermore, the development of the quarterly results since the end of 2008 was commented on, which have gradually improved so that they have been positive again since the third quarter of 2009.
Due to the prevailing market conditions, the financial targets were not achieved in 2009 with the exception of the net debt/equity ratio, which was within the target range.
The strategy was outlined and the Key Account Management initiative continued in 2009. This initiative aims to develop relationships with important key customers and focus on improving service and profitability of the business.
Nils Arthur also commented on the cooperation with Volvo and described the types of products ProfilGruppen will supply to Volvo’s new truck platform from 2011.
ProfilGruppen has been awarded SEK 4.8 million from the EU’s Social Fund to invest in skills development together with its largest subcontractors through the project “Aluminum in new ways”. The project, which has started, will run until summer 2011.
Nils Arthur concluded that ProfilGruppen is well equipped to meet future market growth.
The cost base is adapted to the current market situation and the capacity for profile production is dimensioned to more than double the 2009 volume.