2019 – A year of investments

The KWH Group´s year 2019 was marked by record investments which totaled EUR 135 million. As some of the investments will be completed in 2020, this year’s investments will also be high.

– 2019 was a year in which we grasped many new business opportunities and built the foundation for good growth in the years to come. Despite these major investments, we are financially strong, says Group President Kjell Antus.

The lion’s share of the investments, ie EUR 96 million, was allocated to KWH Logistics and mainly to the development of infrastructure in ports. The second largest investor was Mirka, which invested in, among other things, production facilities and new premises.

World trade growth remained weak in 2019. Therefore, the KWH Group´s turnover grew only by 2%.

– We set some challenging growth targets ahead of 2019. Considering the development of the world economy during the year, we can be satisfied to have achieved growth of 2%. We are now carefully following developments on our markets to make adjustments if the rate of growth slows any further, Antus continues.

Skilled personnel in a key position

The KWH Group’s organization continued to grow in 2019, and the number of employees increased by 168 on average. At the year-end, KWH had 2,383 employees.

During the past year, the KWH Group increased the resources for the HR departments in all of the business groups. We will also continue to invest in our employees’ skills by offering a range of further training opportunities.

– The success of the KWH Group is based on our committed employees. We therefore want to offer a sustainable, attractive workplace where our employees feel that they can contribute and develop based on our business principles and our core values.

Ability to adapt to changes and plan in the long term

The KWH Group reached the age of 90 in August 2019, which we celebrated with our anniversary book “KWH 90 years – The Constant Change”. The book describes the secret behind KWH’s success being its ability to adapt to changes in the business environment and plan in the long term.

– We should continue to adapt to changes in the business environment today. We anticipate major waves of changes as a result of digitalization and commercial and technical developments.

To keep up with the development, the KWH Group renewed its values during 2019.

– We want to create growth, stability and confidence in the future in our business with the aim of being an internationally successful family company. Our core values are based on very close collaboration with our customers to create innovative new solutions with them, Antus points out.

You can read more about the KWH Group´s year 2019 from our newest annual review.