Happy Birthday to IWCO! 53 years is no small feat, and after spending just a few weeks here, I can say our legacy is built on the knowledge of the experts who make up our team. As the new CEO of this great company, I’d like to thank all my new colleagues for their warm welcome and share why I’m enthusiastic about the future.
To begin, our new majority owner, Cerberus Business Finance, is excited to have IWCO in their portfolio and are committed to the long-term success of the Company. As mentioned in their recent press release, they have invested $55 million into IWCO to strengthen our balance sheet and drive continued growth. They saw a diamond in the rough and are behind us 100%. That gives us a lot of freedom to dream big and create a world-class organization as we plan for 2022 and beyond.
Strategy and Performance
While I am still making the rounds meeting people, listening to their ideas and options, and creating my own to-do list, there are two areas that I am focused on: our strategic direction and operating performance. So, let me dive into those areas.
Our strategy is focused on supporting key clients with our full suite of creative services, data analytics and marketing strategy, and operating capabilities. Simply stated, our mission is to help our clients generate the best possible results across all their marketing initiatives while pursuing profitable growth for IWCO. In the coming months, you will see more about our future plans to expand into profitable segments by using our full suite of capabilities and services.
From an operating performance standpoint, we’re reviewing each functional area to make sure we have the right people, processes, and metrics in place to support our clients’ requirements. Our leadership team is planning how best to optimize our manufacturing footprint to position IWCO for growth. Each function will have it’s own workflow, forming a world-class operating system.
Plans for 2022: Moving the Business Forward
Through Cerberus Business Finance, we have the necessary funding available to continue to purchase state-of-the-art equipment for growth and modernization. Anyone who walks through our facilities can’t help but notice change taking place. We are full steam ahead on modernizing our facilities with new equipment that will support our commercial growth initiatives, and before the end of the year our facilities again will be running at full capacity.
We’re not in maintenance mode; we’re putting together strategy and moving the business forward, which is energizing. Our people are coming together and putting our hands around the business to shape it for the future. This is an exciting process, and we want our employees’ input and opinions. Already, I’ve been presented with a lot of ideas to take the business forward.