HMK Bilcon exhibits stability during a difficult pandemic year
The North Jutland tanker construction company sold a number of new products in 2020 and continues to grow – despite Corona, the order book is setting new records
The 2020 result has been described as satisfactory to the tanker manufacturer, which has had a difficult year due to the Coronavirus situation and the Danish Armed Forces’ purchase of discount tankers from abroad. Despite this, things are moving forward in many areas.
Underlying operations are stable
This result shows that underlying operations are stable, even in a very difficult year due to the pandemic. CEO Peter Jensby explains that the 2020 result could have been much worse, as there were major challenges with delayed truck chassis, employees being sent home, lockdowns in North Jutland, and more. This required daily re-planning of production, and was only successful due to good collaboration across all departments.
The anniversary year of 2020 didn’t turn out to be much of a party, but the restructuring of the company continued, i.a. with the achievement of an ISO-14001 environmental certification – as one of the first tanker manufacturers to achieve this in Europe. Most important, however, is the launch and sale of the new SafeCon® IT control for tankers, which was developed in-house. In addition, several of the new Citytrailer tanker models and several expandable trailers have been sold, especially within the segment for mobile clinics for the healthcare sector.
The number of employees has increased from 86 to 88, of which 12 are apprentices, two are in flexi-jobs and two are in senior-scheme jobs. The company continues to work on extensive digitisation and automation.
“Our new IoT solution has been launched and is performing fantastically well – customers love this new IoT product, which also has international sales potential as we can now provide online support 24/7/365, globally. And as was planned, we secured an environmental ISO-14001 certification in 2020. We’ve been following the sales plans for our new products, and we’re selling more solar cell solutions, e.g. for the Armed Forces’ fuel containers,” he says.
Development, sales and growth
According to the CEO, 2021 will be somewhat better due to greater sales of new products – if the Coronavirus can be kept out of the factory.
“The development of new products has gone well, sales are going much better and standardisation has gained momentum, which means that it will be easier to automate and/or outsource parts of our production. This allows us to better scale our business and drive our costs down a bit further, which is necessary.”
Peter Jensby says that both the order book and pipeline are currently setting records, now spanning across more products and geographic markets than ever before. This forms the foundation for greater international growth in coming years.
HMK Bilcon A/S
HMK Bilcon was founded in 1895 and specialises in the production of tanker solutions for transporting bio-fuels, oil and petrol; tankers for transporting grain and feed; tankers and tanker containers for the Scandinavian armed forces; as well as mobile expandable trailer solutions for the healthcare sector and events. .
For further information, contact:
CEO Peter Jensby, HMK Bilcon A/S: tel. +45 30 78 47 68.