A better-than-expected year gives us faith in the future
- Expert-blog
The past year, 2022, began a bit cautiously after the pandemic, but once we got up to speed, Finn Lamex did just fine in the end. This year paved the way towards new growth and success.
Finn Lamex’s year went well in the end. In the first few months, the economic effects of the extended pandemic still resulted in some layoffs – but we’ve been back at full capacity since May. Towards the end of the year, we had more orders than we’ve ever had before for the period. Our total turnover may even reach an all-time high, or at least very close to it.
For our industry, the fastest recovery from the pandemic has been in Central Europe, where buses have started to move again compared to the worst of the pandemic period. However, the problem now is the general increase in costs, which applies to both our primary materials and all other purchases. Price changes have accelerated for our materials, and there may even be monthly increases. Of course, the increased energy and transport costs, in particular, has also put pressure on us to raise our own prices.
During the past year, no significant strategic changes were made to Finn Lamex’s operations. Due to the general situation, the 2022 budget and other plans were made with some caution, but in the end they have been exceeded.
WE WILL CONTINUE TO WORK TO STRENGTHEN OUR POSITION IN NEW AREAS IN EUROPE AND ALSO IN THE UNITED STATES.
NEXT YEAR’S OUTLOOK
In 2023, we expect further growth compared to the previous year. Chances for this are good, although there is still a lot of uncertainty in the market. Some predict a significant recession for this new year, and others a minor one.
In Europe in particular, the biggest challenge is the energy price. As energy needs to be conserved everywhere, bus factories are expected to invest more and more in aerodynamics. These needs have come up among quite a few manufacturers, and as a windscreen expert, we naturally strive to support these goals. We are ready to make more demanding windscreens that increase energy efficiency and safety if bus manufacturers design them.
DEVELOPMENT OF NEW AREAS AND NEW TERRITORIES
In terms of our own production and operations, we will continue our long-term project related to, among other things, various machine vision solutions, digitalisation and improving the efficiency of quality assurance. This is a project that has been broken down into many parts and will affect the daily lives of every employee. This project is scheduled to be completed in 2024.
We will continue to work to strengthen our position in new areas in Europe and also in the United States. At the same time, we are looking for new suitable products and customers – not just for buses but also on the machinery side. In that segment, we’ll also focus on manufacturing challenging windscreens.
A particularly welcome event in 2023 will be the Busworld Europe fair in Belgium in October. It is the world’s largest bus trade fair, which will take place again after a break of a few years. And Finn Lamex will, of course, be there.
Finn Lamex CEO
Tero Toivanen
