Building stronger capabilities
for the inevitable upturn

Heikki Hiltunen, President and CEO, iLOQ

This year has afforded us the time to start placing ourselves in a strong
position for when the markets begin to recover. Although, in terms of sales
numbers alone, the year was as disappointing as anticipated knowing the
general global economic and geopolitical situations, there have been many
positive actions and indicators moving forward.

Turning to new markets for success

While our traditionally strong home markets of Finland and Sweden remained in an economic slump for much of the year, we were happy to see many of our newer Central European markets take the weight of carrying business onto their shoulders. For example, Germany and the Benelux region performed well under these current market conditions.

In addition to the hard work of the local team, perhaps some of the positive growth in Germany can be attributed to the astonishing success of Bayer Leverkusen with whom we continued our work in terms of both equipping the stadium with our solutions and our on-going marketing collaboration. Being associated with the team that took home the victory in both the Bundesliga and the domestic cup, securing Champion’s League inclusion certainly didn’t hurt. Congratulations to everyone involved!

Southeast Asia up and running

Last year, we spoke about the big leaps towards the East and the West. On the Eastern frontier, we successfully opened a branch in Singapore and ramped up operations in the Pacific region. In Australia in particular, we have been able to lay the foundations for several significant accounts and projects in the pipeline. In such a vast and desolate territory, our battery-free mobile-only technology is proving to provide a new level of reliability and user experience that serves operators in critical infrastructural sectors such as telecoms or transport networks. We have great expectations for our mobile-only smart-access platform in many of our international markets.

“When we get back to business
as usual, you will find iLOQ
taking a running start at the
head of the pack.”

Strong US market entry

With new features in the pipeline for early 2025, our modern, self-powered, cloud-based solution with mobile keys replacing the traditional mechanical lock and key, has become the preferred offering for market entry outside of our home markets in Northern and Central Europe. Just as in the South Pacific, the case has been the same on the Western front.

Our market entry into the US has taken place without one single physical key. While the upcoming new features will make us competitive in the American multi-family housing sector, we have already had a strong start in many critical infrastructure applications including water, energy and telecom towers

All in all, the US market entry has to be seen as the best start for an iLOQ country organization in the company’s history. Not only have we built up a distribution presence in more than 100 locations around the country in the span of just one year, but we have also recently made the first deliveries from our own distribution hub located in Dallas, Texas. Our technology continues to impress, and we see great potential for continued growth in both the USA and Canada. Current megatrends concerning environmental responsibility and cybersecurity will continue to forge the path for self-powered, battery-free, offline smart access management.

Expansion requires heavy investments

The investments related to making market entry into large new territories is not limited to startup costs, recruitment, logistics and such. While establishing and strengthening local sales organizations and the North American distribution hub were considerable economic undertakings during the past year, there are also considerable R&D efforts needed each time.

Compliance with all local standards and certification requirements often requires adjustments to physical products and hardware in particular. But perhaps even more critical is the need to develop the user experience to match and exceed the norms and expectations of consumers and end users in vastly differing cultures and societies. Today, a large portion of R&D efforts and incurred cost come from software development focused on usability and the integration of new functionalities.

Building structures to support growth

To support our capabilities to operate in increasingly global markets in all four corners of the world, we have started restructuring our organization. We are shifting our business model to create regional operational and decision-making capabilities, which will help iLOQ become leaner and more responsive in all locations regardless of geographical location or time zone.

A big task for a company that is evolving as we are, is to ensure the quality of leadership across an increasingly international organization. Throughout the year, we have continued to build and work on our leadership culture, redefining and updating our leadership principles. Our entire leadership team has gone through training that is leading us further down the path of value-based leadership. Strong and just leadership and a unified corporate culture are essential for a growth company like ours.

Responsibility work is the basis of iLOQ’s strategy, and we will continue to build responsibility into a value generating foundation for our business. iLOQ is committed to managing its impacts across its entire value chain. We also promote and share the UNs sustainable development targets as a part of our Sustainability Programme. Developing responsible operations within our business is a long-term effort to which iLOQ’s management and employees are committed.

Securing our leadership position

While 2024 may have been disappointing in terms of sales numbers and tough on our dedicated and highly motivated staff, it has shown us that, as a growth company in a challenging market situation, we can use this as an opportunity to learn, develop and position ourselves optimally for the inevitable upturn. We will continue to execute on our strategy whether the market is good or bad – because disruptive new technologies will always find a way into the hands of those who lead the locking revolution. We have seen that iLOQ has what it takes to renew, develop and grow in unfavorable market conditions.

Our winning formula of unique and industry-leading technology and unrelenting entrepreneurial spirit continue to carry us through turbulence and towards the brighter future that we are already beginning to see some promising signs of. When the floodgates open and it is business as usual again, you will find iLOQ taking a running start at the head of the pack. Today, and in the future, we choose to lead rather than follow!