Bjorn Dahle, CEO, inspire solutions

In 2019 Mek Europe/Mek Americas LLC celebrated 25 years of excellence and at the same time our most successful year to date. Introduction of dual sided SMT/THT modular and inline models, a new optical platform for Conformal Coating Inspection and the AI powered 3D AOI systems at Productronica were all well received & set the trend for the start of 2020.

The emergence of Covid-19 in March 2020 resulted in a gradual decrease in investment in inspection and test systems in general. Very quickly we were all forced to go digital in a massive way and delivering information and product demonstrations online became the new business norm. At Mek we had already been working with cloud-based services and online support tools for many years so the adaptation to the new digital norm was seamless.

The remote interactions have made it quick and easy for our customers to get information, place orders, and arrange service, and they have enjoyed that speed and convenience. They have become totally comfortable with making large new purchases online. From our point of view the shift to virtual sales has enabled us to extend our reach and significantly improve sales effectiveness.

We saw that production levels in our industry remained largely unaffected. The imminent vaccine for COVID19 and the anticipated stability in global trade and stock markets due to recent global developments, should boost confidence for investments in 2021.

The end of 2020 was predominantly a time for Mek to focus on technical innovations for the near future and to optimize support models for existing installations. We remain very optimistic for the coming year.