The current delivery times on panels are now back on track, but we have had to make several efforts to achieve this. We can certainly say that we did encounter problems with delivery times. Maarten Van Vooren: "Sometimes the cause for the long delivery times is sought in a lack of stock due to the war. That is only partly correct. One of the main factors is the backlog that we accumulated in 2021. In fact, in 2020 we invested in increasing our capacity on Ringlaan. Stock was built up and volume was created. But every startup has its teething problems, and just then we were overwhelmed by an unprecedented order entry. To give you an idea: at one point our orders simply doubled. This was unforeseen, in addition we could not scale up sufficiently due to a shortage of boards from our suppliers, and production in the start-up plant was stranded from one bottleneck to another. If you increase the capacity of link one, logically you have to increase it at each subsequent link. That takes time, which we didn't have. So suddenly you're running a long way behind the times, and until you've implemented every step, you can't keep up. The absences by covid and the delay on the supply of veneer didn't help either, of course."

Today, Decospan's production is back to full speed. "Currently we are producing 90,000 m2 of panels per week. So that's quite a lot," says Maarten Van Vooren. "The entire chain is running and let's just say that we are running on controlled gas and steadily reducing the order book. At the same time, we have started in full swing with Project Lageweg. Thanks to this expansion, we will be adding a varnish line and then a tongue-and-groove line for our floors starting in 2023. This will allow us to produce at a very high level in the coming years."

Thanks to various efforts, Operations Manager Maarten Van Vooren would like to emphasize that delivery times for the fixed references are very short today.

Stock references are cleared quickly and can be delivered very quickly. Shinnoki is held as end stock and can be delivered within one week. Collections such as Querkus, where sheets from stock are used, have a delivery time of 3 weeks. Even for products with longer delivery times, we have managed to reduce them.