Scm Group confirms its financial stability and rewards innovation
Jan 20, 2020Innovation, digital factory and strengthening of the sales network and after sales service in each of the strategic markets. Scm Group continues to invest and the results speak for themselves.
The Group ended 2019 with a turnover in excess of 700 million Euro, in line with 2018's record figures and on budget for the year. It was also in line with orders thanks mainly to the upward swing in the last few months, while the net financial position was an improvement on that of the previous year, standing at more than 70 million Euro. This is proof of the Group's solidity.
2019 was a positive year in line with figures from 2018 across all the strategic markets, like the United States, and in each of the Group's business segments (Scm for woodworking, Cms for other materials and Hiteco for hi-tech industrial components). The aim is to continue investing in order to consolidate the leadership of all the divisions in the respective fields of experience (from the furniture industry to construction, from the automotive to aerospace, from the nautical industry to the processing of plastic materials) and win over new market niches in rapidly expanding applications.
“Compared to the international economic context and general trend regarding the markets that concern us, we are extremely satisfied with recorded performance which proved even better than expected - highlights Scm Group's General Manager, Marco Mancini -. To ensure these results continue, and to increase competitiveness within the current global context, the levels of investment need to remain high and we need to continue to push further on innovation, digitalisation, customer support services and continuous training for our employees”.
“It is important to make forward-looking choices as was the case during the last intense year - comments the President of Scm Group Giovanni Gemmani -. This is why we continue to invest so we can further consolidate our position on the markets with solid subsidiaries. Both our products and services, as well as our skills, are constantly improving and this needs to become a way of life, our way of thinking and working every day, so we can face new challenges more confidently”.
KEY SUCCESSES IN 2019
The positive results of this year are the result of a long-term managerial strategy and important projects deployed throughout the year.
Training. Over the last year, more than 3,000 people have taken part in almost 5,000 courses for a total of 42 thousand hours of training. Campus, Scm Group's training centre, coordinates and promotes all the activities aimed at developing the professional, technical, administrative and managerial skills of the Group's employees. Furthermore, it is a point of reference for sectors of interest and for customers who can also follow distance e-learning courses, with Scm Group experts, on the latest technological trends.
Innovation. Numerous initiatives have been launched to encourage the continuous stimulus to generate ideas and innovation in all corporate fields.
The Innovation Award was set up for this purpose, as a form of recognition for employees who "invented" the best innovative ideas for products and processes for each individual technology in the vast range of Scm Group solutions. As of this year the Prize, which was established three years ago and is awarded on an annual basis, will become three-monthly in the intent of further encouraging the generation of innovative ideas, which are easily applied and have a high competitive value.
In addition to this, the Team Innovation's activities are further consolidated, within the Group, which works in close collaboration with some of the best known international research centres. Working in highly competitive and everevolving sectors, it is essential to invest in innovation projects which provide added value. Priorities include digital innovation, an increasingly competitive factor in machinery, and the development of new technologies and applications to process innovative materials.
Innovation workshops and technology road maps continue: strategic plans focused on identifying, developing and implementing specific technologies for new company business aims.
Corporate Social Responsibility. Respect for and attention to one's employees has always been one of the Group's founding values. Evidence of this can also be found in the new CSR project. Thanks to the involvement of groups of voluntary employees, innovative projects have been launched which are of a social and environmental nature and in support of the territory in which Scm Group operates. These include a plan to reduce waste and refuse which will gradually be developed across all the plants, both in Italy and abroad. In 2020, the project will continue with other work which will see the Group's human resources playing a key role.
