Season’s Greeting from Niels Aage Kjær

2021 is coming to an end, and it is time to reflect on the year we leave behind and look ahead on the coming year. 

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to spread worldwide, I would first like to offer my best wishes to everyone affected. I would also like to thank the AVK Group employees who undertake business activities across the globe during the holiday season. 

2021 has been a challenging year for our company, our business partners, and our employees across the world. Despite these challenges, the AVK Group has achieved a good result this year, which will help ensure our future development based on long-term and sustainable investments to the benefit of our company, our employees, our customers, and the environment. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has given us some challenges, but we have been able to maintain production and supply chain intact during the whole year. This is thanks to a great effort of our dedicated employees across the globe. In addition, our decentralised structure is a strength. Our local companies have great local decision-making power and help to ensure good interaction with our global supply chain. Therefore, we have been able to continue to deliver to critical societal functions such as water supply, wastewater handling and energy supply.  

In 2021, we celebrated our 80th anniversary, and while it has been a challenge to bring people together from around the world, we have instead celebrated our milestone anniversary locally within the individual companies over the year. During this time, colleagues, from many of our companies, have shared photos of their celebrations via our internal communication platform. In this way we have been able to come together and feel cohesion, despite being kept apart by the pandemic. Uniting the Group is important to the well-being of our employees.

The health and safety of our employees is important, and we want to provide a safe and healthy workplace for all our employees. We have put great effort into improving the working environment and health and safety and we are proud that this year, again, we have reduced the number of workplace accidents.

In recent years, we have invested in innovative technologies and new business areas that contribute positively to the sustainable development. At the same time, we have a constant focus on optimising our processes and reducing our environmental and climate impact. 

In 2022, we will continue investing in developing innovative products and improving our existing product portfolio. Further, we will continue having a strong focus on long-term and sustainable investments in our business and operations. Part of the investment plan is to install solar panels at our factories in Denmark. The aim is to convert a considerable part of our energy consumption to green energy sources. 

As a responsible company, we will in the coming year continue to focus on the health and safety of our employees, while maintaining our focus on securing deliveries to our customers. 

Before we go on a well-deserved break, I would like to thank all employees and business partners for their efforts and collaboration. It has been a pleasure working with all of you, and I look forward to the collaboration next year. 

Wishing you happy holidays and a new year filled with prosperity and success!

Best regards,

Niels Aage Kjær, CEO & Owner, AVK Group