Page 23 - a.hartrodt Business Report 2020 EN

Investments
Digital infrastructure, real estate, staff
The pandemic has further accelerated the speed of digitali­ sation. Order management, shipping information, customs clearance, administration, monitoring – many processes are already carried out digitally at a. hartrodt, ensuring a new quality of transparency but also more efficiency in our global transport and logistics networks.
In order to be able to use the options for digital solutions in full, we have significantly further increased our investment
in this area. We spent around €5.2 million on renewing IT technology and software in 2020, having spent approximately €1.8 million in the previous year. A new data centre is a key component of the digital infrastructure. In short, we are ex­ panding our digitalisation strategy in the area of IT so as to be a step ahead of the market.
Investments
We have persevered with the further expansion of our own organisation. The establishment of new national companies and the opening of new branches were progressed as planned. Owner­occupied properties are part of our invest­ ment policy, serving to stabilise our business model.
We have also invested in personnel development. The aim is, in particular, to strengthen sales and IT. We know that quali­ fied staff represents a significant portion of our running costs. But we also know that investing in this area pays off quickest.
Development of group revenues (in %)
% 50 40 30 20 10
0
North America
South America
Europe
Africa
2007 2020
Asia Oceania
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a. hartrodt (GmbH & Co) KG | BUSINESS REPORT 2020