Florian Graf, Head of Sales & Marketing, SMT Thermal Discoveries

How has Covid-19 affected your business in 2020?
For one, we realised that our marketing team did a very good job working from home. Secondly, we saw a significant increase in enquiries, number of clients and turnover. After all, the elimination of trade fairs and customer visits meant that many companies needed to find new, digital communication channels.

Therefore we were quite busy with content creation, digital communication and the development of new communication options. In addition, many companies realized during the lockdown where improvements in marketing and communication were needed. So the growth in demand is unbroken.

Has the pandemic affected your business plans for 2021?
We must be very flexible in creating marketing planning for our customers, because nobody knows how 2021 will unfold. In addition, we will continue to push the use of digital communication channels and marketing forms with our customers. And our customers are ready for this. Therefore, we are assuming that the positive development of our company will continue.

What are your expectations for the electronics assembly industry next year?
I assume that many companies are looking into the extent to which they must or should emancipate themselves from global supply chains. I therefore think that supply chains will return to North America and Europe. But this also means that the demand for smart, fully automated systems in electronics manufacturing will continue to grow. I believe that this pandemic will help to boost efficiency.