Strategy and performance
Demonstrating resilience across EMEA
Our businesses in EMEA demonstrated resilience against the impact of COVID-19 on market demand. Sales picked up after the initial lockdowns, supported by stock level replenishment from our distributors and strong demand in the DIY retail segment in France and Germany.
Better cooperation with our key suppliers and partners has enabled mutual protection and helped us tackle the challenge of peak demands for raw material.
Strong cost control, close inventory management and government support in France, Germany and the UK helped maintain a good performance across the Division over the year.
Unlocking value to boost performance
We have made changes to our EMEA organisation that are designed to unlock value, boost performance and deliver growth. This includes building an organisation in Europe that will be market driven with local teams fully empowered to grow sales in their territory by accessing the full range of Aliaxis products, irrespective of where they are produced. Country line management and functions will work more closely together to create end-to-end value in each market.
To accelerate, we have made changes in the Leadership Team: a new Divisional CEO (Gustavo Vianna, since November 2020), and new country leaders in France, Germany, Italy and the UK.
We have also created three new roles: International business development to organise export to third party customers more efficiently; Industry business development to seize the opportunities in this strategic segment by becoming a multi-market solutions provider; and Sales operations to drive productivity and effectiveness in the sales organisation.
Operational excellence
We are implementing an operational excellence programme across 15 plants in EMEA to unlock the potential in our manufacturing facilities.
The programme provides quick wins by improving operational processes that will enable continuous improvements to generate the cash we need to reinvest in our business. It is the first step towards a larger Aliaxis Operations Model that will build long-term capabilities across the Group.
France’s focus on Sales and Customer Service
Aliaxis France was confronted with the biggest drop because of COVID-19, but also saw the highest recovery. The French team also launched a new sales and customer service organisation, to better serve dealers, installers and specifiers, making use of a range of new digital tools.
Our supply chain was under severe pressure, but our teams worked hard to recover normal levels of service. We introduced extended working times, including shifts over weekends and public holidays, to meet reviving customer demand.