2015: the year in retrospect

2015 is in its final throes. We are already taking stock and are in the process of reviewing a turbulent, but successful year.

The beginning of 2015 delivered a thunderbolt! On 15 January, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) made a surprise announcement: It was to discontinue the minimum exchange rate of 1.20 Swiss francs per euro. Immediately thereafter, the Swiss franc appreciated heavily, or – in other words – the euro and all other currencies collapsed at once. For a short time, the euro even fell to below one franc. Subsequently, the currency pair fluctuated around the 1.03 mark. This corresponded to a decline in price of -14.3% at the beginning of the year.

As a company with a euro turnover share of approximately 80%, we had to implement a raft of measures during the first quarter in order to absorb the looming losses and to reduce the dependence on the EUR/CHF exchange rate in the long term. We succeeded in this and can now look back upon a successful year, despite the turbulence of the first few months. This year, we carried out over 150 boiler overhauls, re-builds and repair operations, thus enabling us to show a positive annual result for 2015. At this juncture, we would like to thank all our customers for reposing their confidence in us, and for their loyalty.

Innovation and quality are at the heart of our corporate strategy. For this reason, our innovation strategy was consistently pursued this year, too. We thus succeeded in lodging simultaneous patent applications for multiple innovations. These will definitively shape the future of our companies and will consolidate our market position. So that our quality management also remains consistent, we have obtained certification in accordance with the new ISO standards ahead of time. Mokesa and Mokesys have successfully undergone audits in accordance with ISO 9001:2015 for quality management, as well as with OHSAS 18001 for occupational safety and health protection.

We can thus conclude 2015 on a note of satisfaction given our various achievements, and can look forward to the new financial year with full confidence. The prospects are good!

Mokesa AG wishes you and your families a restful Advent season, a wonderful Christmas celebration, and health, happiness and success for the New Year 2016.