Robert Stobiński, Amica: Szukamy sposobu, by przewidzieć przyszłość

Good day to you. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not sure if we're a cabinet, but I hope we're a good Polish company.

Indeed, at the end of 2019, we announced this Amica 4.0 strategy, but actually, the factory modernization or digitalization program had been ongoing earlier. The best proof is the high-bay warehouse in Wronki, which is probably the only one of its size in Europe where no people work, and all products are stored and retrieved automatically. So this wasn't the beginning of something new; it was reinforcing a trend we had observed, where modern technologies could give us a competitive edge. Regarding the second part of your question, whether the pandemic negatively affected us, it primarily raised questions about whether all the directions of change we wanted to achieve earlier are still relevant. Immediately in April 2020, we created a group we nicknamed 'day after', which analyzed various trends in the economic world and social behaviors to see if after the pandemic, consumer and business behaviors would be different. It confirmed that what we assumed in the strategy was the right direction. We made slight adjustments in the implementation program, accelerated some tasks, and postponed others to later dates to manage our resources reasonably. So, summarizing, the pandemic didn't affect us negatively; if anything, it accelerated and intensified our actions in that direction.

I'll divide my answer into two areas. First, regarding the work environment: remote work was easiest to implement but required attention to cybersecurity with thousands accessing data from various places. Beyond remote work, we saw ideas to reduce business travel using modern teleconferencing tools, saving time and costs. Second, regarding business changes: we observed two types. First, business behavior changed from just-in-time logistics to having contingency stocks when supply chains break. Companies are diversifying supply sources, not necessarily back to Europe, but to geographically closer regions like North Africa or Turkey. For social trends, the pandemic led to home renovations, increasing demand for home appliances, and interest in new features like steam cooking or contactless use. The pandemic also highlighted digitalization in Industry 4.0, not just in products but in backend operations. Amica and other companies focused on adapting production and supply chains. What we call factory digitalization isn't new, with earlier automation, but during the pandemic, advanced analytics and AI revealed new possibilities. Our 'day after' team defined macroeconomic indicators to predict industry trends months ahead. Using AI, we found correlations between seemingly unrelated indicators, creating a matrix for observation. We're implementing tools for advanced analytics to answer not just what happened, but what will happen and its impact on estimated company results. This helps in decision-making, like forecasting sales and production cost increases. While estimates can be affected by external factors, they provide a directional guide, preparing us for changes.