One of Lolland-Falster's largest companies is struggling to get black numbers on the bottom line. Year after year, there has been a deficit at Hardi International. On Thursday, the annual report for 2024 was released, showing a deficit of 57 million kroner for the producer of spraying machines for agriculture.
- Yes, the numbers are blood red, let's just agree on that, states Hardi's CEO Hans Meulenkamp.
He has been in the CEO chair since September last year. But Meulenkamp is not new to Hardi. Since 2018, he has been the CFO and thus has had his hands deep in the accounts that have repeatedly shown deficits.
Australian failure
- The strategy in our largest market, Australia, has completely failed and is the predominant reason for the deficit. We have bet on a machine type for the Australian market that we have not been good at building. This means that we have now decided on changes to the product program, strategy, and organization at the factory in Australia. Likewise, we are in the process of a major restructuring of the strategy for the entire HARDI group, a process where we involve employees internationally, says Hans Meulenkamp.
And one should not go around thinking that better times are just around the corner.
- I might as well say that 2025 will be as blood-red as 2024, for we will not see the fruits of this work until 2026.
10 years of deficit
📉 2024: -57 million kr.
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2023: -17 million kr.
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2022: -39 million kr.
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2021: -54 million kr.
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2020: -15 million kr.
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2019: -128 million kr.
📉 2018: -54 million kr.
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2017: -25 million kr.
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2016: -11 million kr.
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2015: -22 million kr.
The financial statement for 2024 reveals yet another loss in the series. This time, two things in particular have dragged Hardi down. Firstly, a failed venture in Australia. Secondly, a global agricultural market that has been 30 percent below normal, where farmers have held back on investments.
But Hardi's problems are older than that. For the past ten years, the company has been running with large deficits, and you have to go back to 2014 to find the last profit.
Pressured industry
Hardi has been producing field sprayers in Nørre Alslev for more than 60 years, but the industry is under pressure, and Hardi is not alone in its problems. According to Meulenkamp, no one in the industry is really making money at the moment. Nevertheless, the French parent company Exel continues to support the Falster-based company.
Hans Meulenkamp has been part of Hardi's management since 2018. Before coming to Falster, he was the CFO at Ferrosan Medical Devices A/S, and before that, he spent more than 15 years at the German industrial giant Gea Group. He took over the position of CEO from Jens Kristensen, who was brought in in 2018 with a clear mission: to turn a minus into a plus.
Patient owners
Now it's Meulenkamp's turn to try, and there are several elements of the previous strategy that will be continued in the new one.
- One should not be nervous. There will also be Hardi in five years. And in ten years. We have some patient owners, he says.
It is a reassurance. But it is also an emphasis that the company lives on goodwill.
Hardi needs to start making money again. Therefore, the management is working on a new strategy that will be rolled out during the spring. Meulenkamp does not reveal the details, but he emphasizes that Hardi needs to get closer to the customers, have stronger branding, and become sharper in the environmental area. Sustainability is no longer a choice but a necessity, and Hardi must stand stronger in the green transition. Furthermore, quality must be top-notch and prioritized at a level just below safety for the employees.
