Corona or Not: 25% Growth in G&E Segment

We can speculate about the reason for the growth and whether it’s due to Corona alone or whether it’s a natural “comeback” from a relatively weak 2019

THE PANDEMIC HAS PROVEN TO BE BOTH A CHALLENGE AND A DRIVER FOR ASETEK IN DENMARK, THE USA, CHINA AND OTHER COUNTRIES

As soon as you enter the headquarters in Aalborg you are met with bottle of hand sanitizer and a temperature scanner that can show if you have a fever.

At Asetek, the challenge of Corona and the risk of spreading infection have of course been taken very seriously over the last many months. Besides a personal encouragement to get tested regularly, the dedicated staff have also been offered antibody tests at the company. And a few who became infected were immediately sent home to isolate and get treatment.

Asetek CFO Peter Dam Madsen says that the pandemic has had a big impact on the in-house routines:

“To begin with, our China department in Xiamen – only 600 miles from Wuhan – was “down” for some weeks. And, before we knew it, the problems had spread to the rest of the world. Fortunately, our supply chain and production systems coped without major problems thanks to a peerless effort from our staff, manufacturing partners and subcontractors.” Peter Dam Madsen recounts how people in both the Danish and US branches have been working from home and showing great pioneering spirit. “Fortunately, as an international player in a fast-paced and quickly-evolving sector, we were well trained in working from home and at varying times of day. We therefore haven’t seen our development momentum slow down. We implemented the necessary measures around physical distancing and infection containment and were therefore able to maintain our manufacturing in Denmark, for example.”

As for sales, Asetek has seen its G&E (Gaming & PC Enthusiast) segment grow by 25% from 2019 to 2020.

“We can’t help but be very satisfied with that, of course. But we were concerned in April 2020 when we watched a world-wide crisis unfold, without being sure of the long-term consequences”, explains Peter Dam Madsen, adding:

“We can speculate about the reason for the growth and whether it’s due to Corona alone or whether it’s a natural “comeback” from a relatively weak 2019. Our feeling is that it is a combination. We also began selling a relatively large number of exciting new products in 2020, and they have been very well received. Looking at it over a 10-year period, growth has also been a very nice 15% per year on average.”

Corona has been and still is a challenge that Asetek has had to deal with, says CFO Peter Dam Madsen. Here, he makes sure one of Asetek’s employees checks her temperature.