Fiven Annual Report 2020

Fiven Annual Report 2020 The first quarter of 2020 still looked very promising, and we were mostly unaffected by the emergence of the pandemic. However, we knew we needed to quickly adapt our processes to protect our employees as much as possible and ensure business continuity. Thanks to our newly established IT environments, we advised most office personnel to remain in their home offices. Besides, our buildings' common areas were regularly disinfected, and employees were issued face masks and sanitizers. An intensive information campaign accompa- nied this on how to behave in this health crisis. Today, we are pleased to report that these measures have worked and there have been no major outbreaks of COVID-19 within our sites. With lockdowns in many countries around the world, our order books indicated a sharp drop in demand. We had to take all appropriate measures to produce safely and adjust our pro- duction and organizational levels to the reduced sales volume. This included calibrated cost-cutting measures and personnel reductions in production and administration. At the same time, we had to ensure that our customers were delivered on-time despite complications in worldwide logistics. Acting quickly with these measures, combined with a favora- ble impact from the sales mix, currency and reduced raw material costs, contributed significantly to keeping EBITDA relatively stable despite reduced demand. We have seen that our Specialty Products segment was less affected by the crisis, which underlines our strategic decision to invest in this segment and focus on its expansion. I am as enthusiastic as I have ever been about this business and there is still more innovation ahead. As we enter 2021, we see a silver lining as vaccination campaigns begin in all major economies and governments put in place stimulus packages. But we also see our customers still facing uncertainty as the second wave of lockdowns occurs across Europe and more infectious virus mutations spread worldwide. It is too early to predict how good 2021 will be from a business perspective, but looking at last year's results, which were only made possible by our strong teams within Fiven, we are confident that we will make it the best possible. I want to take this opportunity to thank all our partners and investors for their trust and cooperation. We are thrilled to have you on board. Falk Ast Chairman of the Board Fiven ASA 2020 was a different year than anyone could ever have expected. The COVID-19 pandemic hit economies hard and created significant uncertainty in the markets. Fiven is proud to have delivered a solid financial performance despite these difficulties and reduced sales volume. Succeeding in a challenging market environment 6   Succeeding in a challenging market environment