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Looking back to 2021, we can say that it was a year full of milestones for Kitron. We are now a team of more than 2500 people in 9 world locations! Let's recall the events that made this year extraordinary.
Contribution to the community
By engaging in education, our team from Kitron Poland encourages and supports young people to develop their skills and knowledge in electronics. For this reason, they awarded students at Technical High School in Grudziądz. Even more, they donated an oscilloscope to the Electronics Laboratory operating in the school. All of their support and activity in the development of industry education was recognized and awarded during a gala held on the 15th anniversary of the Pomeranian Special Economic Zone!
Our colleagues from Kitron US proved that helping the members of their community is essential. They organized a November Food Drive to support those in need for the third year in a row. During that time, they collected approximately 319 food items and distributed them to the St. Francis Caring and Sharing Food Pantry. Our team from Kitron US are true ambassadors of caring - they also support the Joyce Murtha Breast Care Center in Windber, PA each year, and participate in so many other charitable fundraisers. What an impact!
At Kitron, we are constantly striving to meet our promises for the environment. In 2021, we placed a brand-new EV charging station at Kitron Lithuania – a convenient, efficient, and sustainable solution for all our employees and guests. Also, some of the EV charging station's energy is from the solar power plant installed at the beginning of 2020! Until now, this inexhaustible source of power has already generated enough solar energy for a car to drive more than a million kilometers!
Also, in 2021 Kitron Lithuania joined a collaboration "Future for Electronics" with the biggest manufacturing companies, academic institutions, and social partners that aim to achieve a long-term increase in the popularity of electronics engineering among young students in Lithuania. Education is the core of our future, and Kitron Lithuania set another example of supporting this idea!
Kitron sites around the world
We are happy that Kitron Lithuania has been re-certified according to the ISO/TS 22163 quality standard for the railway sector. The standard defines quality management systems requirements for the entire supply chain of the rail sector, including design and development, manufacturing, and maintenance activities – emphasizing continual improvement and safety aspects and replacing the previous IRIS certification. The certification process was performed by DNV GL. The railway is part of Kitron's Electrification sector.
2021 was truly a remarkable year - Kitron Lithuania turned 20! We first established a manufacturing presence in Kaunas, Lithuania, in July 2001. In 2014, a significant upgrade and expansion led to more than 850 employees serving our customers from a more than 13 000 sq.m. manufacturing area - the largest facility of Kitron Group. Today, we are proud that Kitron Lithuania holds a professional team, various certifications, and an operational excellence program to be the ideal partner for our demanding, global customers.
Keeping up the team spirit is one of the essential parts of our work. The Team from Kitron Sweden came up with an admiration gesture – they served a free lunch for everyone to say Thank You for the hard everyday work. At the same time, they supported a local restaurant, which is also an essential part of helping a small business overcome tough times.
2021 was special for yet another celebration – Kitron Poland turned 2! We opened our newest Kitron facility in Poland in 2019! This step was significant in order to provide more convenient solutions to our customers and at the same time contribute to the development of the entire Kitron Group. Since then, it was nothing but solid growth - the facility provides highly competitive manufacturing services for customers from several European countries and has a number of relevant quality certifications. Today, a staff of more than 200 people in an 8200 square meter factory is gradually ramping up the activity and expanding the capacity to meet the constantly increasing demand.
At Kitron, we mark - our business is driven by our employees' expertise. For this reason, Kitron China has initiated a Quality Month Activity to improve the Quality Mindset of their engineers. The training included an education to improve problem-solving and communication skills, knowledge about Quality Culture, QMS, Products Introduction training, and a Quality Culture Workshop. We believe that we must ensure our employees develop along with the development of our business – and Kitron China demonstrated a great example.
In 2021 our team from Kitron China was also recognized by Ms. Sydney Xiao, IPC Asia President, for good performance and reputation in the EMS industry and encouraging continuous improvements! IPC standards cover all manufacturing processes at Kitron China and have qualified IPC CIT & CIS trainers and engineers to ensure process capability. Mainly, this standard marks superior quality, reliability, and consistency in electronics manufacturing.
Growing strong
At the beginning of 2021, significant changes came up - we rearranged our market sectors and introduced two new sectors: Electrification and Connectivity. The first is focused on the move to renewable energy and Electrification, and the second is on the fast growth in machine-to-machine communications. We aim to create value continuously, and the year showed that it was a successful path!
Our business was growing rapidly thanks to the strong competencies of the Kitron team. It was proved by new partnerships for the production of methanol-based fuel cells, battery management systems, and battery systems for marine, oil, gas, and port applications. All these new businesses fit perfectly with our strategy of pursuing growth opportunities within Electrification!
2021 was a year full of accomplishments thanks to the remarkable performance of the Kitron Team and our partners.
We also want to thank all our customers, followers, and suppliers for their endless effort for success, which we can deliver!
