Danish Viking Life-Saving Equipment A / S with around 3,000 employees employed in maritime security globally has just presented a profit for 2020 of DKK 170 million before tax. However, the company had to lay off hundreds of employees especially at a factory in Thailand to reach that profit during the pandemic.
Viking Life-Saving Equipment A / S is one of the world’s leading suppliers of safety equipment and services to marine, offshore, and the fire industry. Like other companies, they had to adjust when the pandemic closed down the world and collapsed the offshore market a year ago.
The declining demand for maritime safety equipment had consequences for a significant number of employees in the Viking Group and a few hundred employees have been laid off, especially in connection with production in Asia, but also a small number of salaried employees in Denmark and subsidiaries globally.
Viking’s CEO, Henrik Uhd Christensen however remains satisfied that the company has withstood the difficult market conditions, which to varying degrees have affected the most important customer groups at the same time and triggered what he describes as the perfect storm. He also does not hesitate to praise the company’s employees, which together with tight liquidity management and costs that have been reviewed closely, are the main reasons for a satisfactory result.
To JydskeVestkysten, Henrik Uhd Christensen says that they made an effort and managed to understand how covid-19 would affect their business. The extremely fluctuating demand has a major impact on their production and service apparatus, but the strong, global structure with a presence all over the world has enabled them to service customers despite the far-reaching restrictions. “We have documented our ability to adapt, and dedicated employees throughout the organization take great pride in the fact that we have succeeded in maintaining and expanding our market position, says Henrik Uhd Christensen.
Viking Life-Saving Equipment can now present an annual report with a turnover that ended at DKK 2.6 billion, while the profit before tax ended at almost DKK 170 million, or exactly DKK 168.8 million, against DKK 205 million the year before.
