Dear Afimilk employees,
2020 was a record year for Afimilk, the fourth consecutive year of solid growth. This record was accomplished under unusual circumstances of a COVID 19 pandemic, that hit all our target markets and affected each of us individually.
Early in 2020 we took the steps to weather the storm support our people and grow our businesses. We signed new key distribution agreements; hired people in the regions that we couldn’t meet in person managed our purchasing and supply chain near flawlessly, dealing with much longer supply time of parts and with assembly lines that for weeks were not functioning due to closures; continued developing our products in almost full force, but did a lot of that from home; found ways to continue supporting our customers and training them, despite the severe limitations on travel.
We should be proud of ourselves that we managed to adapt well to the rapid changes in circumstances. Proud of our ability to embrace a proactive, creative mindset. Proud that we emerged stronger, create resilience as we persevered through this downturn.
Looking into the future, there is hope that vaccine will mitigate the disease. Yet, as it seems, it will get worse before it gets better. We put together 2021 Annual Operating Plan (AOP) to ensure we meet the growth targets of the new year under the unique circumstances and be ready for growth acceleration the day after the pandemic is over.
We have a fair list of ambitious goals for year 2021 We plan to continue building our teams around the globe to ensure we have the capacity to uncover many more business opportunities and the capability to train and support our customers. Sell software and tags as a service, gradually transforming our business model and better serving our customers. Grow our investment in digital marketing to generates mass of leads while monitoring the different campaigns to optimize the process. Put much more emphasis on customer success, getting closer to the end users of our products, ensuring their satisfaction and creating further business opportunities with them, for us and for our dealers, beyond the initial sale. Rebuild our Engineering team to further improve the quality of our products and to ensure we can scale up production to meet the growing demand. Release a new software version, AfiFarm 5.5, new leg tag version, Afiact III and make the production ready version of S nergy (our robotic milking system) work in farms. Support our installations of Aficollar and Afipass II in the various milking parlor configurations.
As the holiday season starts for all our employees around the globe, the time seems right to congratulate you on your achievements, thank you for your hard work in making 2020 a success, and wish you the very best for the coming year.
A Happy New Year and prosperous 2021 to all!
Kind regards,
Yuval Rachmilevitz
CEO
