Insight

Welcome to the 2024 Janus Perspective, a unique feature that includes a wide cross section of global fastener business leaders. Named after the Roman God 'Janus' – who had the ability to look to the future and to the past, and was often depicted with having two faces – this feature brings together thought leaders from every facet of the industry, from around the world, to give us their retrospective on 2023, as well as prospects and challenges for 2024.

Graham Souter, vice-president head of BU Nord-Lock

For Nord-Lock Group, 2023 was an exciting, challenging but ultimately successful year. We undertook a significant internal reorganisation that means we are more customer driven than ever and are able to deliver the service that our partners require. 

As a business, our focus for 2023 was on growing the USA and APAC market, whilst maintaining our strong position in Europe, and that was something we achieved. We were expecting some interesting challenges during 2023, such as localisation requirements in China 2025, and a likely slowdown in Europe and the USA, and those things did materialise.

The European market was particularly difficult during the first half of the year, with distribution partners suffering from very high stock levels caused by previous supply chain problems and some OEM partners slowing down production as demand reduced. However, in the second half of 2023 we did see some of those earlier issues start to resolve and demand from our European partners was back to a positive position by the end of the year.

Nord-Lock Group has seen that some volatility in the markets can be good for us. Our customers see us as a ‘safe haven’ and look for a long standing and trusted partner that helps limit any risk that may be seen with less well established businesses. We are also fortunate enough to have a wide ranging portfolio of customers across many segments, meaning that significant downturns in any one industrial area can be offset with gains in another.

The same could be said for North America, where some individual project successes certainly helped that situation – as we saw some good growth across that part of the world and here once again there seems to be a stabilisation in our customers outlook moving forward. In APAC, China was challenging and as a Group we need to find the best way of preserving our business levels with current customers – whilst still having the ability to win new business. I think it fair to say, we see demands such as local manufacturing requirements being one of our biggest issues, not just in 2024, but also in future years and as a business we must be ready to deal with that as it arrives.

Our strength remains the result of a long-term approach with a clear focus on efficiency, growth and innovation. Our owners, Investment AB Latour, continue to invest heavily to ensure our state of the art production facilities give our colleagues a safe sustainable and efficient environment in which to work and our customers receive the product they want as quickly as they need it. Nord-Lock is a truly global organisation and that means we need to have stock available in all regions for fast deliveries.

Overall, there is a rather optimistic and ambitious outlook for the Nord-Lock Group for 2024, following on from the success of 2023. We are determined to continue to capture organic growth and we will continue to work with our customers and partners to solve bolting issues anywhere in the world. We see opportunities not only in our more mature markets but still have untapped growth areas where we barely scratch the surface – such as having established an office in Turkey during 2023 and improving our presence in the Middle East, and both areas will be good for us in 2024 and beyond. We will not lose focus on our established markets and indeed still see much more achievable growth in these areas.

Innovation will be a key driver during 2024 as new fastening requirements come to the fore. As a business we will launch some new products such as Combi nuts and an extension of our X-Series washers, which will help us solve even more of our customers’ problems in the future. Our sister Business Units of Tensioning and Expander will also keep looking at new ways to satisfy market requirements in the coming years and all these actions combined will ensure that the Nord-Lock Group remains an innovative supporter to our customers and partners.

So, Nord-Lock Group is looking forward to yet another strong year in 2024. The mixed messages from economic opinion will continue, but the outlook seems positive. The targets we have set ourselves are both challenging and yet achievable and I believe we are in a position to deliver to those targets and ensure our customers continue to get the support that they need. The future in our opinion remains an exciting one. Most of all the entire team take great pride in the knowledge that our work continues to make the world a safer place.