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Damen Schelde Marine Services looks back on its “best year ever”, says Managing Director Arnold Suykerbuyk. “It was also our busiest year ever,” he adds with satisfaction. Thanks to strategic purchasing and stock management policies, DSMS succeeded last year in serving many customers from all over the world in a market where demand far outstrips supply. The company’s revamped website, which has greatly improved online findability, also contributed to a very successful 2021 for DSMS, although this success was overshadowed somewhat by Covid.
The four DSMS executives were naturally very happy, but at the same time not too surprised about the success of the past year. “At the end of 2019, we actually set up a strategic procurement policy, which meant that we were actually prepared for the corona crisis before we knew it would break out,” Arnold says. “We got ahead of ourselves early.” As a result, DSMS was able to strategically position itself at the right time in the market for trading and servicing spare parts for marine diesel engines. Arnold: “This position ensured that we had the wind in our sails.”
Outside the DSMS building, a big shipment of cylinder liners is ready to be shipped to clients.
"Our margins were under pressure last year, but if there is more demand than supply in the market, and you have enough in stock, this does not affect you that much.” Arnold Suykerbuyk
As early as 2018, the newly renewed DSMS management team, consisting of Arnold, Rémy Quist, Jeroen Caris and Ezra Lamers, had brainstormed about how to position their organisation even better. In addition to improving the procurement policy, they invested in a completely new website with a revamped catalogue and a comprehensive web-shop. “The website went live in 2020 and our findability on the internet has greatly improved since then. We are still further refining the site. We have also invested heavily in the application of digital marketing and the use of social media.”
DSMS employee Benjamin is carrying out some modifications to a cylinder liner.
Due to the rapid global economic recovery after the first corona wave, the demand for spare parts on the world market increased rapidly. But at the same time, the global supply chain – also due to corona – became increasingly unpredictable. “DSMS benefited from that situation because we had kept a good level of stock ourselves, which allowed us to continue to supply a customer base that was growing rapidly,” Arnold says. “The website facelift had brought in new leads from all over the world which gave us many new customers.”
But in the meantime, global transport costs and transport times were also rising sharply. On the purchasing side, DSMS was therefore confronted with sharply rising expenses. “Container transport rates have increased tenfold in the last two years,” says Arnold. “Nevertheless, we did very well, because our purchasing strategy was correct and therefore we rarely had delivery problems. As a result, we were able to distinguish ourselves from our competitors. Our margins were under pressure last year, but if there is more demand than supply in the market, and you have enough in stock, this does not affect you that much.”
During the recent Damen Sustainability Day, participants were given a tour of DSMS's enormous warehouse.
Covid did cast a shadow over 2021’s successes. Like so many other companies, DSMS had a difficult year at a human level due to the pandemic. “We had to deal with a lot of sick people, quarantines, working from home. That put a lot of pressure on the organisation, but also on individual colleagues. Of course, we drew a lot of positivity from the successes achieved, but when you cannot celebrate and share the successes and achievements together, it is a shame… We were only able to organise one small outing last year.”
In October last year, DSMS did host the very successful Damen Sustainability Day. “We are now going to hire a new colleague who will focus on the winning ideas that were put forward for a sustainable future for our company. With the help of this new colleague, we hope to succeed in reaching those goals in the short and longer term.” Arnold concludes: “I am optimistic about the future of our company. We expect 2022 to be similar to 2021, but with an even better starting position in terms of stock and personnel. We strengthened the team with several new colleagues last year.”