Avinash Gandhi
Dear stakeholders,
The year 2020 was an unprecedented one in every sense. It tested our abilities to withstand enormous challenges, which brought out our collective strength to push through paradigm shifts. Before delving deep into our performance during the year and the road ahead, let me wish all of you and every member of your family the best of health and wellbeing.
We had entered the year on an optimistic note with green shoots of economic recovery visible across sectors after a period of structural slowdown. The auto industry growth appeared to be bottoming out. As we approached the end of Q1 2020, the coronavirus pandemic brought economic activities to a standstill, disrupted supply chains globally and threatened lives and livelihoods.
“We continued on our commitment to provide access to healthcare and empower the community through our Nitara and the STEP programmes. We also actively supported the government, regulators and communities in overcoming the challenges arising out of the pandemic.”
Resilient in the face of adversity
At Schaeffler India, we adopted a proactive approach to
navigate through these challenging times. We activated
our crisis management plan even before the nationwide
lockdown was imposed. Our focus remained on ensuring the
health and safety of our key stakeholders while maintaining
the highest level of transparency. We also set in motion
our business continuity plan to limit the impact on our
performance. As the engines of economic growth started
rolling again in the second half of 2020, our performance
too gathered momentum. We managed to close the year with
margins and profitability at
pre-pandemic levels.
The road to recovery
The government’s quick response to minimise the pandemic impact helped stabilise the economy. Stimulus measures equivalent to 10% of GDP were announced. When a gradual opening up began in June, the recovery has been swift and much sharper than previously expected, boosted by strong pent-up demand followed by festive spending. Auto sales too witnessed a steady growth trend.
The pandemic notwithstanding, we continued to make investments in high-priority areas such as capacity expansions, innovation and digitalisation during the year. As the Schaeffler Group redefined its strategy under Roadmap 2025 to become more competitive and fit for the future, we have aligned ourselves with the same.
“The government’s quick response to minimise the pandemic impact stabilised the economy. Stimulus measures equivalent to 10% of GDP were announced. When a gradual opening up began in June, the recovery has been swift and much sharper than previously expected, boosted by strong pent up demand followed by festive spending.”
Reinforcing commitments to the society
I am glad that we did not let the pandemic affect our progress on our community development initiatives. We continued on our commitment to provide access to healthcare and empower the community through our Nitara and the STEP programmes. We also actively supported the government, regulators and communities in overcoming the challenges arising out of the pandemic.
Moving forward with optimism
We are confident of gaining momentum in 2021. Our healthy performance and continued investments hold us in good stead. We, the Board of Directors of Schaeffler India, are strongly committed to successfully stewarding the company towards sustained value creation for all of you.
I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to every member of Team Schaeffler India for their invaluable contribution. I am grateful to all our stakeholders, including customers, shareholders, our business partners, regulators and society at large for believing in our vision and capabilities. Special thanks to our parent company for their constant support and guidance.
Sincerely,
Avinash Gandhi
