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With the end of the year in sight, we can safely say that 2021 has been a special year for Alumax Boats. It will come as no surprise that the Corona pandemic has played an important role in this. Because the well-being of our people, and their loved ones, is always our top priority, we consider ourselves fortunate that the number of Corona infections in our company has been limited to an absolute minimum this year. However, that does not mean that we have not felt the effects of the pandemic.
Because like the rest of the world, we have also noticed that the pandemic had, and still has, a major impact on our daily work. As a result, already in 2020 as a result of factory closures, a raw materials crisis and in its wake a logistical crisis – also thanks to the ‘blocking ship’ the Ever Given – . As a result, delivery times increased considerably, and in some cases congestion even meant that some items were no longer available at all. To top it off, the increased demand for our boats and the low supply on the (commodities) market also led to a torrent of price increases. From aluminum to motor and from wooden panels, stainless steel material to cushions; not one part of a boat had the same price at the end of 2021 as it was at the beginning of 2021. In the midst of this rollercoaster, we steadily built a record number of boats for our customers, which this year stretched from Paraguay to Vietnam and from Norway to found in Portugal. We owe them a lot of thanks for the unbridled patience they have had, and the understanding they showed, because although we felt the consequences of ‘Corona’ on a daily basis, we have always been aware that as end users they suffered the most. of the various crises.
Even though ‘Corona’ forced us to the utmost in 2021, we nevertheless look back on the past year with great satisfaction. Our order book was well filled, with the series of electric water taxis for Rotterdam and the Worker 41 for Vietnam being the most eye-catching. These kinds of large-scale projects have led us to expand our team this year with a number of specialists. After 27 years, Robert Boerma made the switch from Dutch Rescue Vehicles (DRV) to Alumax Boats and he is responsible for work preparation and engineering special products. Daan de Wit has strengthened our engineering team with his almost thirty years of experience in the boat sector. Finally, Gerjan Bosch is the latest addition to our team. Gerjan, like Robert and Daan, can boast of a rich career and is now leading the proverbial cart at Alumax Boats in our construction department, where he is a cooperating foreman.
We have not only provided our team with quality by expanding it, we have also seen our young talents take steps forward as a training company. Because despite the fact that Corona almost completely paralyzed education, Pim, Timo and Jeremy have again gained the necessary knowledge and experience. Together with the core group, which has been working in the same composition for years, the young talents and new colleagues form the foundation on which Alumax will continue to build in 2022.
Speaking of building; the growth of Alumax Boats provided, in addition to the staffing level, another challenge in 2021. Our building, where we have enjoyed working since 2009, soon turned out to be too small. To create the much-needed space, we rented some extra space this year and started preparations for the construction of a new hall. We have the ambition to realize this expansion in 2022.
It should be clear by now: we did not sit still in 2021 and that is because we have built more and larger boats. In addition to the aforementioned water taxis and the Worker 41, we have also delivered a whole range of sloops and tenders. Among other things, we see that the demand for electric boating is increasing, which is apparent from the fact that The Next, the sloop that we launched on the market in January 2020, is our leader this year when it comes to numbers. What we would also like to mention in this retrospective are the Bullit 660 fire-fighting boats that we built for the Fryslan Safety Region. We dare to say that we are specialists in that segment.
The large group of (international) customers who found their way to Alumax Boats in 2021 often first started their journey on the internet. And that didn’t just happen, it’s the result of the efforts that have been made to improve Alumax Boats’ online visibility. The new website, which we launched at the beginning of this year, has played a major role in this. However, a functional website is of no use if you do not direct the ‘traffic’ to it. And our social media channels play a decisive role in this. We are happy that all those channels have gained a larger fan base this year.
When you look back, you also look forward. And what we see is a year in which we are expected to experience many special moments. We hope to start building our extra hall, we will start building some special, challenging boats, we hope to further expand our team and we will bring new models to the market. But above all, we hope that 2022 will be the year in which we will beat Corona together.
We wish you a beautiful and healthy 2022 and toast to safe sailing!
