Another year with a pleasant aftertaste
We bid farewell to 2016 satisfied with the job we have done and with the rewards earned and (how could we not) thanking all of our clients and suppliers for continuing to rely on JIOrings.
2016 comes to an end and, once again, it is time to briefly summarise to help us analyse the steps we took (both for better and for worse) during the last twelve months, to reflect on our annual objectives and establish new challenges for the upcoming year.
And if we look back over it, we can see that 2016 was another excellent year for us. The reward for our daily commitment and teamwork is the reaching of some of our important milestones that we would like to share with you in this post.
Sales record and market expansion
We have done it again. This year we have succeeded in surpassing several of our historical turnover records and key achievements for the future of the company. Over our twelve years of existence, we have handled more than 4,700 clients, sold more than 200 million seals, and sent more than 75,000 packages by land, sea, and sky to 20 different countries.
Over the course of 2016, we have managed to add more than 100 new clients to our portfolio, thanks to the work of our salesmen (Óscar, Cesar, and Arkaitz) and of all the marketing and communications work carried out (Silbia). Furthermore, in November, we beat the record for monthly orders, with it having the largest orderbook and turnover in the entire history of JIOrings. The warehouse workers (Fernando, JuanRa, Gonzalo, and Laura) have not stopped preparing packages. Thanks to the brisk pace throughout the year and, above all, to the results from the previous month, this year we are going to top the annual turnover record, 1.5 million more than last year. The Accounting Department, headed by Maite, is still celebrating ;D
We hope to continue growing in 2017, and quickly, around 10% according to our Executive Director (Iñigo).
Immersed in the certification of our quality system
We find ourselves in the middle of the quality certification process according to standard ISO 9001-2015. Our objective is to achieve this by January 2017 and, thus, to be able to address new needs that we recognised among our clients. What better way to start the year?
The process of obtaining the ISO standard has made us perform a comprehensive improvement of our quality management system in order to make it comply with the international standard. We always have an eye out for ways to improve our products and services in order to be able to offer you the best product with the best service.
Stock expansion
In order to be the quickest way to find a seal, we must be able to meet the majority of our wide range of clients’ needs. As a result, over the last twelve months we have focused on increasing our stock of O-ring seals made from Viton®, in the French R range in VMQ70 FDA red, NBR90, and NBR50. Similarly, we have also expanded our stock of spools of cord stock made from Xiametre® and Viton® original, both materials certified for food use by the CTR laboratory.
However, we have not focused on expanding stock of just these two products, but rather also in supplying our warehouses with the main ranges of all of our major products: X-rings, U-rings, V-rings, RB gamma seals, rotary shaft seals, etc. Our Purchasing department (headed by Jean-Albert) did not have time to get bored this year.
We keep collecting certifications
One of JIOrings’ competitive advantages is its rapidity, but another is that we also offer the best products. To do this, we always show the various certifications that verify that our products are of the highest quality. And in 2016 in this respect, we have certified our own new mixtures for moulded silicone seals (VMQ70 FDA red, VMQ40 FDA translucent, VMQ40 FDA brown…), among others, as well as for extruded profiles, such as Viton® (FPM75 FDA black, silicone VMQ70 FDA red…).
As this is a process that never finishes, we have created a new section on our website where we display all the official approvals that we have obtained.
Because we know that trust is foundational to our relationship, throughout 2016, we wanted to share some moments of our working and social life with you. That is why we recorded our corporate video about how we work at JIOrings, we publish photos of our annual outing to foster inter-personal relationships and a positive atmosphere, we share photos from several Fridays where we have celebrated one of our staff’s birthday… And created a lot of content on our social networks so that you can get to know us better.