Dear Grundfos Partner,
Bjerringbro,May 17th, 2020
Two months after the COVID-19 was officially declared a global pandemic, and in the very week where Grundfos turns 75 years old as a company, I would like to once again personally address you as one of our valued partners. And first and foremost, I hope and pray that you, your families and your colleagues are healthy and well!
It is now painfully obvious that the pandemic has massive consequences for health,social and economic conditions all over the world – and that especially the economic consequences are likely to be profound for a long time.However, it is encouraging to see that the disease seems on its way to get under control for now in most countries in the world. This also means that we are seeing societies and businesses starting to reopen
after several weeks of low or no activity.
Although less than many other industries and companies, we are also impacted by the pandemic at Grundfos. We are blessed to have had only a limited number of infected colleagues so far, and for now, everyone infected has either partly or fully recovered. Our business is negatively impacted in especially countries that have imposed strong limitations on how society and businesses operate. And despite some countries showing some business recovery, we expect the negative impact to continue throughout the spring, with a partial recovery during second half of this year.
I am very happy to say that after some initial disruptions, our global supply chain is fully operational with none of our factories nor critical suppliers fully shut down. Therefore, despite many societies still being partly closed down, you can count on Grundfos to support and supply you no matter where you are and what you need. Obviously, nobody can tell what the coming weeks and months will bring. But rather than letting this uncertainty paralyse us, Grundfos has a clear focus on being ready for the future! Not just by being able to increase supply with short notice if needed, but also to ensure that we keep strong
focus on continuing our Grundfos Strategy 2025 journey in areas such as product innovation, intelligent water solutions and digitalisation.
Apart from keeping our people safe, protecting their jobs, and continuing to keep our business operational, Grundfos is also making a special effort in the area of social responsibility. An example of this is that we over several weeks have transformed part of our production in Denmark to manufacture over 100,000 protective shields for health workers. Equipment that the Grundfos Foundation donates to hospitals in many countries to make our small contribution to keeping health workers safe.Another example is that we have chosen to pay 2,500 small suppliers immediately instead of the normal payment terms – which helps smaller and more vulnerable companies survive at little cost or risk to
Grundfos. And as a final example, our Grundfos Foundation has donated 20 mDKK to support local organisations all over the world in their work tomitigate negative implications for the weakest in local communities.
As we celebrate our 75 year company anniversary (albeit not quite as we had planned), all 19,000 of us at Grundfos would like to thank you dearly for your loyalty and continued support under extremely difficult circumstances – and, importantly, also for your contributions to ensuring that people everywhere still have access to water, heating,
cooling and other vital necessities, including serving many of the emergency hospitals. I am proud that our company works with partners who play such a vital role in society!
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how vulnerable the world is, but will also show how human resilience will bring societies and companies through the crisis. And that is what we at Grundfos plan to do together with you: Come out stronger! Only this way can we continue to make our contributions to solve the global water and climate challenges. Challenges that despite the pandemic are still ahead of us and take all we got to resolve…
All the best,
On behalf of Grundfos Group Management,
Mads Nipper, Group President & CEO, Grundfos Holding A/S
