'It was an inspiring week! I am pleased that we were able to take our Lely Centers and our colleagues with us as we visualised the Farm of the Future. The vision that we focused on during the event builds on the ‘Farm of the Future’ that we presented at the Lely Future Farm Days in 2018. But this has now been further ‘fleshed out’ with our new solutions, enabling us to present a ‘circular’ farm. And, of course, we also launched three new revolutionary products – Lely Horizon, Lely Exos, and Lely Sphere!'

'Our Future Sessions informed our Lely Centers about four key topics. The benefits of Lely Horizon for dairy farmers, and the operation and roll-out of Lely Horizon. Our Lely Centers are key to getting this product to market correctly. There was also a session on building a sustainable collaboration between the Lely Group and the Lely Centers. The final topic covered concerned our customers – dairy farmers. How do we support them in realising their goals, from the first contact through to managing an operation in full swing.'

We had some exciting days with the Lely Future Farm Days. How do you look back on this?

'It was a good year for Lely. We started strongly – our order book was fuller than it’s ever been in January. From mid-March, orders fell sharply due to the uncertainty created by Covid-19. But during the summer the sales forecast picked up well. That said, we see big differences worldwide and organising trade fairs and open days for customers, to help generate leads and sales, will remain impossible during the coming months. Partly due to this, the market conditions remain uncertain. We have not ruled out the possibility that we could go back to the situation we experienced in March at some point. That's why we have to be sharp and make sure we react as fast as possible! Various campaigns have already been launched and we now want to sell in advance as much as possible.'

How do you look back on 2020?

'We also have to work differently because there are no shows, events or large open farm days. There is a big shift from physical to online activities. Many initial sales visits now take place online and, at a certain point, you can of course no longer avoid visiting a company. But we now do that much later than before. With these changes, we need the help of other departments, such as Lely Academy. It has changed its training approach to what we call ‘blended learning’. With this new training structure, the relationship has shifted from a large proportion of classroom training to online training and ‘coaching on the job’.

One factor that makes it more difficult for us is that we are the new kid on the block, as we only started our ‘in the barn’ activities 28 years ago. So we have to work harder to get noticed by farmers. This is done online, among other things. In Covid-19 times, it is much easier for a dairy farmer to stick with their existing supplier when they want to invest. The farmer already has a relationship with them. Our challenge is to track down these farmers and speak to them. This is a new way of working for us, and dairy farmers, but being digitally visible is the solution right now. Everything that we are having to learn, due to the impact of Covid-19, we also have to embrace if we’re to become even more efficient.'

'To continue to promote Lely's growth, we will focus on a number of important points – particularly adoption and the Customer Experience concept, and ‘Fit at Lely’. These affect everyone in our distribution channel. The Lely Centers, the Clusters and Lely International – everyone has to contribute.

Adoption means demonstrating to dairy farmers that robots are the future – for milking, feeding and manure handling. Informing dairy farmers worldwide will increase the size of the pond from which we can fish for new customers. Once farmers are convinced of the benefits of robotics, we must then ensure that they consider adopting Lely solutions to automate. As a young player, we must ensure that we stand out among the traditional brands in our sector, as the ideal partner for dairy automation.

The Customer Experience concept will describe the customer journey from the moment a dairy farmer, perhaps unconsciously, thinks of investing in a robot, with all the moments in between, such as visiting a trade fair and the purchase, to a satisfied user and even an ambassador for our brand. It will be a more integrated way to interact with our customers and to see when there is interest in a new robot. Bringing all the steps together will allow us to see that everything we do fits somewhere in this process. And all components can be properly coordinated and delivered with greater synergy. We will be rolling out this way of thinking and working throughout the organisation. Many people have an influence on this!'

What do you believe are the main focus areas for 2021?

'Last, but not least, we will continue to pay attention to ‘Fit at Lely’ next year. Consider, for example, how quickly your day can fill up with Teams meetings. Try to keep it realistic. Get away from your computer regularly and make sure you keep your work and private life separate. I know that this is difficult, it runs too easily together while working from home. But really try to take it into account.'

Commercial launch of products, introduced at the LFFD

Lely Exos

The first prototypes of the Exos are operational on test farms. We will further develop the system in the coming years before making it commercially available.

Lely Sphere

The first interested customers who live in the Limburg and Brabant regions of the Netherlands are already being approached for installation. This product is not yet available to the rest of the world.

Lely Horizon

Will be available from the second quarter of 2021. This will be rolled out per region. Clusters and Lely Centers will be kept up to date and informed when their region is set to launch.