Robit Plc’s Annual Report, Corporate Governance Statement and Remuneration Report for the year 2020 have today been published in Finnish and English in PDF format on the company’s website at https://www.robitgroup.com/investor/financial-information/.

The Annual Report contains the Board of Directors’ Review and the Financial Statements 2020. The Financial Statements includes Consolidated Financial Statements, Robit Plc’s Parent Company Statements and the Auditor’s Report.

Please read the report: Robit Plc Annual Report 2020

POSITION AND MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES AT ROBIT

My position in Robit is VP Top Hammer. This is a role focusing on the Top Hammer business globally in the company. The concentration is in driving growth and profitability across the regions to achieve the target levels in accordance with company’s growth strategy.

Offering, stocks and service level are day to day topics, which are in a central role in working towards the targets. The ambition is high for Top Hammer, and we have a solid base to become a key player worldwide with our excellent products.

EXPERIENCE ON THE FIELD

I started my Robit career in 2011, and I have always been involved in sales. Throughout the years there have been rather enriching phases. As an example, back in 2011 we only had our Finnish premises and our recently acquired South Korean factory. All other markets and distribution management was taken care from Finland and South Korea. A key milestone in my Robit career was the opening and ramp-up of our Robit SAC company in Peru, which was very rewarding personal experience. Throughout this timeline, perhaps due to the markets, I have been mainly concentrated in developing the Top Hammer know-how much more than other product lines, which made it very natural for me to take the SBA Top Hammer role.

Visiting the customer operation is the key to develop know-how skills. I would like to encourage everybody – of course safety first and hopefully this would be soon again possible to do so – to travel to support the distributors and customers on the jobsite.

KEY MARKET TRENDS ON THE FIELD FOR THE NEXT FEW YEARS

Top Hammer SBA has a great possibility to grow significantly in the next few years. When speaking to our customers, productivity is the main key market trend that I would like to highlight in our business area. More than ever, customers are interested on this topic and how we can help them to improve this. By listening to our customers, and always thinking how we can generate value to them, I am confident that our offering will develop even further to address those needs.

HOW DO ROBIT’S ONGOING ACTIONS SUPPORT THE CUSTOMERS AND THEIR CURRENT CHALLENGES?

We are committed to deliver the “best in class” button bits to our customers. The Rbit^TM is one of the many ongoing actions that we are taking forward to address our customer needs. We will continue to focus on the development of our offering, but at the same time we will emphasize our distribution strategy so that we can secure reliable and solid position for the coming growing time. Our new sales areas are more focused than ever, so this means that our connection with our distributors and customers will be strengthened and developed. Training of our own personnel, distributors and customers is the key element of the ongoing actions.

HOW DO YOU SEE ROBIT IN 2021 – WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN EXPECTATIONS ON YOUR FIELD?

I see a great opportunity for Robit, to consolidate and take a step forward in the Top Hammer segment. Our company has been gradually gaining market share into the mining segment. We are stepping into the bigger leagues as we are having top customers such as Norilsk Nickel, CODELCO, Agnico Eagle Finland to mention some. Other key areas as Australia, West and Central Africa are also ramping up also into the mining segments, which will surely deliver excellent results for this 2021.

For more information: Jorge Leal, firstname.lastname@robitgroup.com

 

Read more Robit ProTALK interviews:

• George Apostopoulos, VP Global Sales
• Adam Baker, VP Down The Hole
• Kari Alenius, VP Finland
• Ville Pohja, VP Geotechnical
• Mikko Vuojolainen, VP North America
• Franco van Deventer, MD Southern Africa
• José Cisneros, MD Robit S.A.C.
• Steve Landreth, VP Australasia
• SK Back, Regional Sales Director – Asia
• Pavel Timofeev, VP CIS & East Europe

POSITION AND MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES AT ROBIT

My role is VP Global Sales & Marketing and as implied I am responsible for growing the Robit Group sales across the world. We have recently re-organized our company structure to have stronger focus on driving our growth in selected key areas. In parallel, three (3) distinct Strategic Business Areas have been created to develop each product line’s competitiveness, growth, and profitability; these are Top Hammer, Down the Hole and Geotechnical.

We also need to make sure that we do portray a solid, consistent, and professional image to the outside world therefore our marketing activities are coordinated accordingly.

EXPERIENCE ON THE FIELD

My experience on the field spans some 20 years. Started working with Atlas Copco in Greece as a Business Manager for the Construction & Mining Technique business area back in 2001. Moved to Ghana, West Africa in 2006 at the General Manager of the operation. A very interesting and minerals rich region where mining is the focus. We expanded the business well as we started companies and subsidiaries in Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Cameroun. In 2014, the Central Asian challenge was next. Based in Kazakhstan with a six (6) countries responsibility, we managed to ‘weather’ the recession at the time and started growing the business significantly again by gaining market share.

KEY MARKET TRENDS ON THE FIELD FOR THE NEXT FEW YEARS

The ongoing pandemic has developed the markets to be more volatile than usual and I believe this will be the new norm. This means we should as a Group be extremely pro-active and agile. The mining business is more stable and resilient as we seem to be in another metals prices super-cycle however construction looks ‘slow’ now. There are opportunities in both sectors, and we must be close to benefit the most we could.

HOW DO ROBIT’S ONGOING ACTIONS SUPPORT THE CUSTOMERS AND THEIR CURRENT CHALLENGES?

Robit tries to stay as close as possible to our distributors and eventually the end users of our products. We support with product and application training, we conduct product trials and prove our worth on the field, respond quickly to filed issues and ensure that our products do get the deserved recognition in the market.

Our distributors across the world are the key for us and we want to have the best distributor management concept in the market; this would ensure continuous support for them and their customers.

HOW DO YOU SEE ROBIT IN 2021 – WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN EXPECTATIONS ON YOUR FIELD?

We take advantage of the current, limited travel opportunity and fine tune our re-organized sales structure. In other words, we are getting ready for the time that the pandemic eases or is over so that we can again travel and be close to our distributors, partners, and end users for the necessary support.

Our strategy is based on growth, we are a growth company, and this is our main expectation. We want to grow our dealer network and together with them gain market share account by account, a simple and proven method. 

For more information: George Apostolopoulos, firstname.lastname@robitgroup.com

 

Read more Robit ProTALK interviews:

• Jorge Leal, VP Top Hammer
• Adam Baker, VP Down The Hole
• Kari Alenius, VP Finland
• Ville Pohja, VP Geotechnical
• Mikko Vuojolainen, VP North America
• Franco van Deventer, MD Southern Africa
• José Cisneros, MD Robit S.A.C.
• Steve Landreth, VP Australasia
• SK Back, Regional Sales Director – Asia
• Pavel Timofeev, VP CIS & East Europe

Robit and Agnico Eagle have signed a long-term cooperation agreement of drilling consumables supply to Kittilä mine. The deliveries start on 1 May 2021. Robit has previously supplied diamond button bits to Kittilä mine for production drilling. Thus, the mine and conditions are familiar to Robit.

Tommi Lehtonen, CEO of Robit Group: ”We are happy to start this cooperation, which is a result of a long-time work and is an important reference to the company. It is also an investment to domestic market. We are excited of this collaboration, which in addition to product supply offers an opportunity to develop our products together with one of the leading mining companies.”

Jari Kolehmainen, Production Manager at Kittilä mine, Agnico Eagle Finland Oy: “We are delighted with this agreement and expecting a long-term and close collaboration. Together we have an opportunity to develop drilling consumables e.g. diamond button bits and Sense Systems products to serve customer needs even better.”

On the photo from left to right: Jari Kolehmainen (Production Manager at Kittilä mine, Agnico Eagle Finland), Kimmo Kangas (Sales Manager Finland, Robit), Janne Saukko (General Supervisor at Kittilä mine, Agnico Eagle Finland), Kari Alenius (VP Finland, Robit).

Kittilä mine is the largest gold mine in Europe. The mine extracts annually about 1.6 million tonnes of ore, yielding about 7 000 kg of gold. At current production volumes, the mine’s known ore reserves are expected to produce gold until 2034. The mine life could be extended, depending on the results of exploration. Kittilä mine provides jobs for about 500 employees and about 800 contractor personnel. Further information: www.agnicoeagle.fi.

Robit is a strongly internationalized growth company servicing global customers and selling drilling consumables for applications in underground and surface mining, construction, geotechnical and well drilling. The company’s offering is divided into two product and application groups: Top Hammer, Down the Hole and Geotechnical. Robit has own sales and service points in 8 countries as well as an active sales network in over 100 countries. Robit’s manufacturing units are located in Finland, South Korea, Australia and the UK. Robit’s shares are listed on Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd. Further information is available at: www.robitgroup.com.

Further information:

Tommi Lehtonen
CEO of Robit Group, tommi.lehtonen@robitgroup.com

Jari Kolehmainen
Production Manager at Kittilä mine, Agnico Eagle Finland Oy, jari.kolehmainen@agnicoeagle.com

Robit^® Rbit™ AR Application

Please download Robit^® Rbit™ AR Application for your smartphone to present new series for your customer. You can demonstrate new features without carrying bits in your pockets. Applications will be found with “Robit Rbit” title:

After installing the software in your smart phone you have two options to use it:

With Physical (needs marker print and real button bit) or Virtual mode.

Virtual mode:

Scan flat surface and point the grid to place virtual Rbits in to scanned surface.

On the top menu you can rotate Rbits and make flow of flushing and cuttings visible.

Link for robitgroup.com media bank to get the latest brocures, e.g. Robit^® Rbit™ Series.

From the “Feature” menu you can visualize Rbits’ new innovations:

New transition face ensuring better energy transfer

• Transition face with rounded edges enables better flushing design and optimized button layout
  ⇒ New functionality of the bit

Optimized button layout maximizing rock contact

• Smart button configuration
  ⇒ Optimized rock breaking dynamics

Wider flushing grooves allowing better flow of cuttings

• Improved flushing
  ⇒ Maximized flushing efficiency

Physical mode:

Place a specific marker image A (printed on the paper) on to a flat surface and place the physical Rbits on the marker B with help of virtual alignment bits. Use menu to hide the adjustment bits.

A.

B.

On the top menu you can make flow of flushing and cuttings visible.

For more information, please contact Mr. Jorge Leal, VP Top Hammer, firstname.lastname@robitgroup.com