Market and business environment
Strong demand 2020 generally saw continued strong demand for Ramudden’s services, but the rate of growth declined slightly and varied from market to market. Driven by the increasing complexity of our customers’ projects, we are seeing a shift towards higher demand for consultancy services.
Interest in Ramudden’s services is growing as customers become more aware of and knowledgeable about safety and compliance. There is greater focus on work site safety today than previously, although there are still large differences in maturity between regions and countries. As the safety regulations become increasingly complex, the part of our business that involves services in which our customers entrust us with all or part of their safety work is becoming a more important part of our offering. Maintaining a high level of safety while creating efficient work sites and traffic arrangements requires expertise. At the same time, we operate in a small, increasingly regulated niche in which customers benefit from outsourcing responsibility to a dedicated specialist. Impact of the pandemic
Economic development in 2020 was affected by the pandemic, the lockdowns and restrictions. We saw a wide range of effects on different markets. While operations in Sweden continued more or less as normal, the impact was greater in Norway. The growth of 30% per annum we had previously had there levelled out. The effect in Finland was much less, despite a hard lockdown. Outsourcing increased from a previously low level. Customers that needed greater flexibility when their balance sheets were put under pressure turned to us to avoid making their own investments in equipment and materials. This shows that our business model is inherently able to withstand a weaker economic climate.
With today’s complex regulations, expertise is required to maintain a high level of safety and create efficient work sites and traffic arrangements. There is a big incentive for customers to turn to a dedicated specialist.
If we look at the potential long-term consequences of the pandemic, infrastructure investments have been used historically as a financial policy instrument to mitigate
economic crises. We are confident that activity on the market will return to normal and take a positive view of the future. Strong demand 12
