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CEO Blog
31/12/2020

Jarltech growth in 2020: the high expectations were met!

When I set a growth target of 30% for our Sales department at our Sales Kick-off in January, I was able to look at many astonished faces....

When I set a growth target of 30% for our Sales department at our Sales Kick-off in January, I was able to look at many astonished faces. Even without knowing about corona, the target was quite ambitious.

When business thinned out a bit in April and May, I dreaded I was ultimately going to have to say goodbye to these goals.

But no, on the contrary - my people rocked it! In fact, incoming orders rose by a whopping 30.2% (more than a precision landing) to 418 million euros.

Not a single sales territory shrinks in 2020; everywhere things are on the rise.

Due to the great respect for a corona slump, our year-end stock levels were unfortunately not quite as good as usual - but a 60 million euro investment program to increase our stocks will start right away in January, so that we will finally have the largest and broadest inventory in our industry.

I can only thank all my employees for a great business year, the challenges were great across all our departments. Many corona regulations did the rest.

We will present our business figures in April and already expect a further increase in our equity ratio. By the way, since our 2019 figures, the Jarltech group now achieved »investment-grade bond rating« according to the Deutsche Bundesbank's audit opinion. What strong praise for the stability of the company.

I'll keep the goals for 2021 to myself for now, because why ruin the fun. :) There is still a little time until our virtual Kick-off at the end of January.

18/12/2020

Getting fat without having fun

Let’s be honest, weight gain is a dirty word - it only happens to undisciplined, weak people. Well - maybe they have a disease, but isn't that more of an excuse?...

Let’s be honest, weight gain is a dirty word - it only happens to undisciplined, weak people. Well - maybe they have a disease, but isn't that more of an excuse? Let's think about it.

What comes to our subconscious mind on the subject of »weight gain«? Exactly: feasting! Not abnormal »taking in food«. On the contrary: indulgence!! Gingerbread, raclette, fondue, heavy sauces, French fries, pralines, chocolate - if you could now merely think away your guilty conscience, wouldn't that be nice? Doesn't the wisdom that no matter how much you eat, you can never gain more than 300 grams a day help? So if I've already eaten 30 domino sweets and 25 marzipan potatoes, have I eaten my way into the »who cares« range? Do I then have a free pass for a few hours to take in a few more kilos without the risk of gaining any more weight?

Unfortunately, I quit smoking four weeks ago. Unfortunately. My brand of cigarettes was banned in the EU. Ok, I only smoked for a very short time. But still, it was actually very nice. Even though I knew all the time that smoking is about the stupidest thing that a person can do.

But now I no longer smoke, I simply compensate for it. On the one hand, I annoy my fellow man (preferably my family), with the resulting lightning depression or simply a (clinically irrelevant) bad mood. And: I eat. Everything. All the time. When I'm not hungry, I have an appetite. And when the appetite is gone, then at least I want to: eat!

Please, dear readers, send me menthol cigarettes. Right away! But inconspicuously packed. Alternatively, gummy bears or licorice. I would also love some fine cheese, though please not from the supermarket. I am suffering. Thank you.

10/12/2020

Finally, a new blog post

Again, someone has asked me why it's been so many weeks since my last blog post. Folks, it's just difficult. Let me explain....

Again, someone has asked me why it's been so many weeks since my last blog post. Folks, it's just difficult. Let me explain. It's not the writing that's difficult. Finding topics? That’s easy, I come up with at least five every day. But no matter what I come up with, I’m not allowed to hurt anyone. And I can't damage our business. So only very rarely does a topic come into consideration.

Here's a list of the things that came across my desk this week alone, but which I can't talk about publicly - in parenthesis you’ll find the reason why I have to keep my opinion to myself.

- Corona cases at Jarltech and what vocational schools have to do with it (data protection and threats of punishment by the schools)

- The German government screwed up the vaccine distribution for purely political reasons (I don't comment politically)

- We screwed up a delivery to a super important customer (I certainly can't admit that publicly)

- My wife now has a horse and so I have slipped to seventh place in the family ranking (self-pity)

- We asked a mean question in the analyst meeting of a listed competitor today (you don't do that)

- We’ve heard rumors that a competitor is greatly driving down its inventories because the new cowboy investors want to free up »working capital« (you don't rub salt in a wound)

- Another competitor wanted to poach our entire sales team in a particular country. The end result was that no one changed from us, but the country manager of the competitor changed over to us (that was a really great victory, but gloating is also not possible)

- Some vendors want to pep up their figures again by having the distribution quickly buy nonsensical inventories this year (relevant for the stock exchange)

And there are still a few more things. So you see, I stay calm because I have to stay calm. But inside me it bubbles up, and one day I start a blog under a pseudonym. :) –

And for those of you who are bored in your home office, here is a video contribution from our restaurant on how to make eggnog (unfortunately it’s only in German): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibyuWgWGOJY&ab_channel=essWebers_official

Stay peaceful and healthy in the Advent season!

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