A few words from our General Manager
Greetings from ALMCO! I hope that you had a great first quarter! Spring is here and I’m anxious for warmer weather to settle into Minnesota, home to ALMCO. We have many lakes and other great areas for outdoor entertainment. I am also looking forward to outdoor dining as well as some of the public events in our city that were cancelled last year.
The first quarter sure went by quickly. We were busy at ALMCO working on orders and implementing our strategic plan. Here are some highlights:
- We hired four new employees
- Working on improving our website
- Building more digital material for display on our website and YouTube channel
- Updating our machine brochures for those that prefer printed material
- Meeting with our distributors on updates and review of 2020
- Adding new products to be developed
Our distributor meetings have highlighted how different things have been in the last year. Some areas are much slower in traditional business and very busy in new business. All distributors report that they have had customers that had a record year in 2020, while other customers have been slow since the start of the pandemic. At ALMCO, business slowed in the middle of the quarter and picked up by the end of the quarter. Out of the distributors we’ve met with thus far, I believe all feel that 2021 will be a strong year for our customers.
ALMCO made several product improvements last year, and this year, our focus is on introducing new products. We have several new items scheduled to be developed this year, all equipment for deburring, polishing, or washing and drying parts, as well as accessory equipment for those machines. Information on new products will come out as they are completed, so keep an eye out in the coming months. Our goal at ALMCO remains to provide the most effective and durable equipment on the market.
ALMCO is committed to helping the community. I serve on our county’s Chamber of Commerce Business Education Collaborative. ALMCO has recently introduced FutureForward.org to our employees. This is a web-based tool that connects classrooms to careers. It is a way for businesses to share their knowledge and talents with school students and educators. This website allows our employees to create a public profile indicating which area schools they can work with to provide mentoring, career fair hosting, work experience feedback, internships, job shadowing, presentations on job-specific topics, etc. This allows students and educators to contact the professionals in our company directly for support of their education. This is just one of the ways we volunteer in our community.
I wish you and your business a very busy and successful year ahead. I hope that you are also able to get out and enjoy some sunshine this quarter as we approach summer. Please remember that ALMCO is ready to help you with your parts finishing needs and to provide you with a completely satisfying experience. Please see us at www.almco.com or write to us at sales@almco.com.
Best Regards,
Tim Grahn