It’s that time of year when we normally reflect on the previous 12 months, our achievements, the challenges we faced and how we came through it all. As we all know, 2020 has been anything but normal and it’s hard to imagine another year that has been as difficult to navigate as this one.
Yet here we are approaching 2021 with so much to celebrate and to be proud of, and a lot to look forward to. We head into next year knowing just how agile and resilient we can be, that we can make huge changes to the way we work and still do a fantastic job for our customers.
I highlighted some of your achievements in the communications call earlier this week but I’d like to take this opportunity to mention some more of the great work you’ve been doing.
The Residential Team have bounced back strongly from quarter two despite facing all kinds of setbacks. A couple of highlights here are that we have gained share over Vitra and HansGrohe with St Modwen Homes, which will eventually be worth 2,000 plots per year, and we have been appointed preferred supplier for full specification to the offsite manufacturer L&G Modular Homes.
The Non-Residential Team have continued to win some excellent projects, notably a number of healthcare new builds and of course some Nightingale hospitals and other COVID-19-related facilities. A growing relationship with Amazon has brought in £1m of specification business in 2020 through their warehouse and office construction programme, with £1.7m of pipeline for next year.
The Trade Team and Supply Chain have worked through the difficult situation with overdues and constant liaison with customers is going to deliver us a really strong end of year number. In addition to that, the Field Sales Team hit the ground running with our plan to grow small projects revenue and this is really paying dividends.
I talked about our work on “E-tail” and DIY in the communications call but it’s worth mentioning again that the groundwork that has been put in over the past couple of years was crucial to allowing us to accelerate in this area as the COVID effect took hold. Staying on the topic of COVID-19, HR have done a great job in working with our safety, health and environment colleagues to provide a safe workplace and with payroll on the furlough scheme, as well as gradually bringing our people back into work.
Of course, these are only a small number of highlights in what has been an excellent performance in very difficult circumstances. I would like to thank each and every one of you for your determination, flexibility and your commitment to Ideal Standard.
Looking ahead to 2021, we can’t be certain what impact COVID-19 will continue to have, how effective the vaccines will be, how Brexit will affect us and how the markets will behave. But there are many reasons for optimism: Our order book is double what we had going into 2020; we will benefit from the full implementation of our internal sales and order fulfilment reorganisation and further embedding of Salesforce; and we have exciting product launches coming up, including the Atelier Collections, which could be a game-changer for us in the architecture and design community.
I’ll finish by wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. I hope you have a safe and enjoyable festive period with those family and friends you are able to meet with.
See you in 2021.
Dave