The beginning of a new year and a new era for our industry

Looking at the prospects in the beginning of the year, we were counting on a year of growth, both for the market and our company. ALMACO had just opened a new office in Germany and we had many large, interesting projects under work and in the pipeline. But the whole world was in for a big surprise. We were rapidly forced to recalibrate our plans, targets, and short-term strategies.   

Blog post by Björn Stenwall, President & CEO at ALMACO

Last year was tough, to say the least, but in retrospect we can also conclude that it presented us all with an opportunity to re-evaluate and reinvent ourselves. I can honestly say that we have learned a great deal during the past year.  

As the gravity of the pandemic hit us, we quickly decided to sharpen all our senses to become even more alert, flexible and adaptive in order to help our customers with the acute problems they were, and still are, facing. The first step was to sit down together to work out new project plans and adapt the scope of works, schedules, and delivery times to better correspond to the situation at hand. We were asked to jump into a few projects last minute, where our help was needed. A few projects were postponed or delayed, but I am proud to say that we were able to deliver more projects that we originally thought possible.  

As the new year begins, we are all hoping for smoother sailing ahead. Still, it’s clear that our industry will be struggling financially for a time to come. We are extending our turnkey scope to take on more responsibility, allowing our customers to be scalable, work faster and with less resources tied up.  

Our product portfolio covers all accommodation and catering areas, including background works. Thereby, our customers can outsource all interior areas to one single trusted turnkey provider. We have developed a new maintenance concept that release our customers from unnecessary hassle and responsibility. In the beginning of May, ALMACO launched a new product category, Health and Sanitation solutions, to help our customers comply to the new standards and regulations now being developed for the industry. During 2021 we will keep working on new innovations that meet both health and sanitation, as well as environmental targets and regulations.      

Many of our customers are looking into new business opportunities and to support their development, ALMACO has been arranging customer-specific training webinars. Besides from helping and learning together, it’s a way for us to stay tuned and in sync with the needs of our customers. Constant dialogue gives us a clearer picture of the future and we can see trends moving towards a preference for smaller vessels like superyachts, expedition vessels and smaller cruise ships. We also see a growing need for digital and automation solutions for project management, operation, and maintenance. ALMACO is focusing heavily on developing our existing and new digital solutions to increase user-friendliness and partially automatize product life cycle management.  

Generally speaking, our strategy is and has always been to stay close to our customers to ensure our business is developing in the right direction. We plan on taking our learnings and close-to-customer philosophy with us to the years to come, and make sure we keep improving and serving the best way possible.   

We are entering a new demanding era in our industry, but with time we are certain we will all prosper again as long as we stay patient and resilient, keep working together and set our eyes on the horizon.    

Thank you and all the best for the new year. 

Björn Stenwall  
CEO & President of ALMACO Group 

For more information, contact

Björn Stenwall

President & CEO

+358 400 827 302

[email protected]