A look back over 2021

With 2021 behind us and the midpoint of our 25th-year celebration approaching, we would like to look back at a very exciting and turbulent year at Flowfit and the industry as a whole.

See what our chief executive Simon Parsonage wrote in the recent issue of the Hydraulics & Pneumatics magazine below.

"Flowfit this year has celebrated its 25 years in the industry and of course, the industry has changed remarkedly.

Back in 1996 distribution changed direction forever we were one of the first companies in the hydraulic industry that decided to enter into the evolution of online selling. I remember many companies raising their eyebrows at this new phenomena it didn't go down well in some quarters who was this new company on the block!!

The internet today is still relatively young (it just celebrated its 32nd birthday in 2021) and yet the connectivity has already produced long-lasting effects. It all started with a cable plugged into the phone line, and now we possess the entire world in the palm of our hand.

Millennials also known as digital customers - will never experience a world with no connectivity and mobile devices. Yes, there are still (small) areas of our planet not wired and cabled but - at least for us living in developed countries - it is hard to imagine a life before Google, Amazon, Apple or Facebook.

Distribution was about to change for ever, the world wide web platform had arrived and marketing, selling and distribution had changed for ever; gone was the ability to control purchasing through the good old boys distributor network. The ability to reach that worldwide audience had changed the dynamics of buying and selling, whether you like it or not.

Flowfit recognised this very early on and I remember well walking through some international exhibition abroad and some guys recognising our Flowfit shirts and sniggering that online sales would never catch on, well it certainly has chaps.

Today stock holding is also absolute key you cannot survive in this market without a large stock inventory, the hydraulic industry is very impatient and expects stock to be delivered and available today, not in 12/16 weeks' time. We call this the Ronald McDonalds effect and worldwide sourcing allows for 24/48 hours delivery from multiple worldwide sources to meet customers demands. Something 25 years ago was just not the normal every day to day occurrence.

Flowfit embraced the advent of the internet back in 1996 and summing up this has been absolute integral to our huge success 25 years later, and as we said at our recent 25 years celebrations:

Here's to the next 25 years!