2006: the year of the change
In the future, when we think about the year 2006 in Eldon we will probably remember that this was the year that several key events took place.
2006 will be remembered as the year where we consolidated our growth. We are growing everywhere where we are present! This is remarkable because it is the first time in four years or more that this happens.
Of course, growth is different for each country and area. Countries that started their changes earlier are benefiting more now but all countries will start to see more and more results from efforts performed during the past two years.
Growth is especially satisfying for our industrial business with installation and ICT business lagging behind. We have nevertheless seen a remarkable recovery of these businesses lately and the outlook for 2007 is positive.
Among the things that we will remember we will certainly think of 2006 as the year where we started to build our factory in Romania that allowed us to reduce manufacturing cost for labor intensive parts.
2006 will also be remembered as the year where manufacturing in Sweden had to be stopped due to high manufacturing costs and fierce competition.
Thinking about 2006 in the future we will also remember it was the year when Eldon started to truly act as a multinational company. For the first time we implemented equal procedures across the company doing the best for Eldon and not necessarily for individual companies. There are several examples for this but I would like to cite our Complaint Handling Form (CHF2) or the way that we plan stocks and production based on data across the company and not individual warehouses. Also our new system to manage research and development projects, called the Gate Model, and our Catalogue Manager are nice examples for this trend.
Another remarkable trend in 2006 was the realization of the importance of our distribution partners.
The best way for Eldon to go to market is through distribution and when we realize this and act accordingly we see interesting results. During 2006 we laid the foundations for a distributor network in Germany.
In the rest of the countries and in our export business we were able to strengthen our ties to distributors.
One of the things we will remember about 2006 is that it was the year of the best ever catalogue. In November we published our best ever catalogue with a new improved image, lots of new products and much more technical information. This was possible due to the effort of product managers and the endless energy of our marketing communication management.
Eldon had never before seen such a complete catalogue and this is only the start to an ever improving process.
Among the new products included and launched in 2006 we have swing arms, EMC enclosures, vortex coolers and lots of improvements to existing product ranges.
We also will remember 2006 as the year where the first part of our new and improved power distribution enclosure "MCSL" was launched.
All in all I am convinced that in a couple of years when we look back on 2006 we will recognize how important this year has been.
Changing our perspective to the present, we can see that in 2007 we will have more consolidation:
- " We will continue our sales growth focusing on profitable growth.
- " We will come out with an even better catalogue.
" Our product offering will improve by adding new products and improving existing.
- " The better understanding of customer requirements that the complaint handling system has allowed will result in better quality and service levels.
- " We will move as much as possible business to our distributors.
- " In 2007 we will continue increasing our efficiencies.
Please join me in making 2007 an even more successful year than 2006!
 In the meantime I wish everybody a nice and relaxing Christmas and New Year!
Julian de la Cuesta
Eldon V.P. of Sales & Marketing
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