In 2020, Coronavirus turned the world upside down. From one moment to the next, companies were forced to completely reorganise their work processes. Markilux was no exception. The awning manufacturer transformed its production, introduced mobile, digital working for its employees and mobilised end customers via a “social distancing campaign”. Though markilux says this was a tour de force, at the end of the year the company reported an increase in turnover of 25 million Euros compared to the previous year, thus achieving a turnover of around 122 million euros.
“Initially, securing the flow of goods when supply chains were interrupted was a major challenge for Purchasing and Scheduling. In spring 2020, within just one week, we also had to switch the entire production to separate three-shift operation in order to ensure physical separation of the employees,” says Michael Gerling, Managing Director for Technology and Production, describing the impact of the pandemic on the awning factory.
“We had to hire more than 300 external workers to absorb the highly fluctuating utilisation of production capacity and the enormous increase in orders. That was a logistical tour de force,” says Head of Human Resources Heike Reinermann. However, due to the long lockdown in the catering and hospitality industry, it was in the large-scale shading segment that the awning specialist recorded the sharpest declines. But sales figures stabilised, as the outdoor trade has never been as important for catering and hospitality businesses as it is at present. According to Head of Marketing and Business Development Christiane Berning, the fact that the order situation was able to recover so quickly was also due to a timely “social distancing campaign”. “Our customer relationships, marketing and advertising campaigns have become even more digital in the process,” she emphasises.
Looking back on the year 2020, the two managing directors, Klaus Wuchner and Michael Gerling, agree that it was thanks to the high level of commitment of its employees and good cooperation with customers and suppliers that the company was able to cope so well with the pandemic. The duo now plan to capitalise on the positive trend in home and garden investments in 2021: “This year, we will again be offering the end customer attractive products and product enhancements in response the increased interest in attractive design for the home. And we will be presenting the innovations at ‘R+T digital’,”, says Klaus Wuchner. In addition, according to Michael Gerling, the company plans to place even greater focus on the expansion of digital and automated processes. The investments of the past years have proven to be correct, so that markilux looks forward with confidence to the year 2021, even though the economic situation is still difficult to assess and Coronavirus will continue to accompany the company.