Plastic Omnium - 2020 Universal Registration Document

Which words best describe your 2020 experience? Martin Schüler: Responsiveness, flexibility and opportunity come immediately to mind. Operationally, part of the company concentrated on resuming business activities. We needed to make our plants operational quickly, while ensuring that the restart in no way jeopardized our employees’ health, and guaranteeing our customers quality just-in-sequence supply. HBPO also seized the opportunity that the dip in activity, driven by the pandemic, offered to identify our future growth drivers. In response, we initiated a creative process to increase our value-added in the electric car of the future. How did you go about this? David Castell: We based our discussion on how to create value for new-energy cars. F irst, we listed all the differences between electric and internal combustion vehicles. Involving our stakeholders in this brainstorming process, we then explored the possible innovations from the user’s perspective. Which potential innovations stood out? David Castell: We had various ideas in the pipeline that are currently still in development. These studies were carried out worldwide with support from various areas of the business, and within our company as well, of course. By surveying users in our three main regions (Europe, Asia and North America), checking the feasibility of single technical solutions with selected suppliers, and involving our South K orean joint venture, which contacted local Y ouTube automotive influencers to collect even more end-user feedback, we again proved our ability to think “outside the box”. How exactly can the end user benefit? What really creates added value for them? Conference call interviews with our clients throughout the process helped us to shortlist some ideas and identify their specific needs, which our development team took into consideration. But that was just the start of the journey, and we are now working at high speed, arranging innovation rounds with our clients to identify potential projects. Key figures 2,700 EMPLOYEES 31 PLANTS 11 COUNTRIES 18% MARKET SHARE 5 MILLION MODULES assembled annually CUSTOMIZATION: UP TO 15,000 VARIANTS per model What next for HBPO? Looking to the future, HBPO launched an innovative ideation process. Martin Schüler and David Castell explain. Above: Martin SCHÜLER, President and CEO of HBPO Below: David CASTELL, Business Development & Marketing Director of HBPO INTEGRATED REPORT PLASTIC OMNIUM UNIVERSAL REGISTRATION DOCUMENT 2020 41