The growing digitalisation, intensified by the pandemic, has boosted the sales of IT and home appliances, as a result of which the ELKO Group’s operational financial data for January-November show a record turnover of USD 2 billion.
13 years ago, in 2007, the distributor of IT and household appliances ELKO Group was the first Latvian company with a turnover exceeding the billion US dollar threshold. This year, at the beginning of the busiest season of the year, two billion have already been reached.
“At the end of last year, we realized that the setting to exceed two billion is quite ambitious. At the start of the year, when almost all supply chains were disrupted and there was high uncertainty, especially in Russia, we were morally preparing to suffer losses. But the following surprised many. Businesses and industries have undergone forced digitization. Living at home provided a demand for goods that were not otherwise on the list of basic needs during crises. As a result, this is the first crisis in which we are in a favorable position, ”comments Sven Dinsdorf, Director of ELKO Group.
Growth has been observed in all markets, without exception. Total turnover is 30% higher than a year earlier in the same period. The biggest surprise is Sweden, where turnover has grown by 143%.
The market objectively shows a deficit in certain product groups, such as the personal computer segment. Pandemic disrupted production capacity and supply difficulties are unable to cover the unpredictably high demand. Delays are delayed and we also have to compete for them. Whereas in the past a major challenge for IT wholesalers was to ensure the healthy movement of goods by preventing rapidly obsolete technologies from entering warehouses, old stock is no longer on the agenda. Item is missing.
“It’s challenging to manage big and fast growth. But we are not naive, such growth times will not always be. Saturation will occur, the market will slow down and we must be able to notice this in good time. Each time has its own tactics. Even at the beginning of the year, when everything seemed to be a mess and a crumb, it was important not to stop, to keep the future perspective. Crises come and go, this is not the first and hopefully not the last if we accept it as part of a natural cyclicality. There is only one thing that is clear – we must not stop, ”says Sven Dinsdorf.
The turnover of the Elko Group last year was 1.682 billion euros, which is 12.3% more than a year earlier, but the group’s profit more than doubled to 17.7 million euros.
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