Insight

A positive year has been enhanced by strength in the EMEA automotive market; our successful expansion into APAC; and the emerging recovery of the North American market.

Moving into my first full year as CEO and the second full year of Optimas as a standalone company, our forecast for 2017 took into consideration the uncertainty of economic recovery in our key industries. We benefited from recovery across a number of our OEM industries and by also diversifying our business across a number of additional segments, product adjacencies and building new channels to market. Optimas delivered a very strong year in 2017 and we will continue to execute on our strategy to become a premier global industrial distributor and service provider. 

We have been focused on driving change in the way that we work, improving our processes and continuously improving our customer service model. We have also made significant investments in emerging markets, new suppliers and we have expanded into new regions this past year. As a result, 2017 has been a year of positive changes, which have been targeted to add value for our customers.

Some examples of the investments we have made in 2017 include the opening of a new distribution centre in Schwalbach, Germany, which will act as the hub for northern Europe; the opening a new facility in Ageo City, Japan, which will complement our China operations in servicing the APAC region; as well as investing in manufacturing and warehouse facilities in the USA and the UK, whilst continuing to nurture and build relationships with our global supplier base.

Optimas is steeped in engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and logistics expertise. Increasingly, OEMs are seeking cost savings via component design, supply chain simplification, lean manufacturing and other efficiency measures. This is exactly where we can add value by integrating our fastener experts into a customer’s design team; supporting in the development of highly engineered fastener components; and the modernisation of production techniques. Optimas is uniquely positioned to meet these needs with over 150 subject matter experts in engineering and quality, often deployed at our customers’ operations. We are always ready to support our customers as they expand across the globe and enable their success. 

As we look to 2018, we anticipate additional growth to come from our core business and new growth from the investments that we have made in multiple channels to market, along with expanded product and services offerings. Given our customers’ expectations and high standards, regardless of the year, our single focus is creating value for them and their teams. We will continue to invest in talent, technology, manufacturing, and operational capabilities, to serve our core customers while further diversifying Optimas so that our customers always consider us as their partner of choice.