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Discipline will be the key word for 2025 according to our CEO Bavo De Cock. He sees it as a way to shape our growth strategy, remain financially strong and excel at ESG. Wondering how Bavo intends to put this discipline into practice throughout Circet? Keep reading.
"Discipline is the difference between those who have goals and those who achieve them!" – Bavo De Cock
Looking back at 2024
Let’s look back at 2024 before we start examining this year’s ambitions. If we summarise 2024 in broad lines, we note…
- ... that we brought the fibre roll-out to a 40% penetration rate in Belgium.
- ... good growth in our energy services, service & management and mobile services.
- ... that we had more than 4,000 candidates and 260 new colleagues were hired in the Benelux. In addition, 1,350 subcontractors requested a collaboration on our website.
- ... many initiatives in relation to ESG. For example, we continued the electrification of our company cars and we tested electric vans.
- ... a wide range of courses in the Circet Academy. It is important that we all continue to learn in 2025.
- ... faster integration of colleagues from GRITT Projects and Alfatech – our latest acquisitions.
All this took place in a difficult and rapidly evolving market. Bavo: “Take the launch of Digi as the 4th Belgian telecom player, for example. With its low prices, it has already shaken up the telecom market.”
“Our customers expect top service and proactivity from us. Our Net Promoter Score of 28 certainly shows that we have their trust and appreciation. That’s a score that many of our clients would envy.”
The result? Bavo: “2024 was a challenging year; for our competitors too, by the way. Despite our hard work, the turnover of Circet Benelux decreased. There are many reasons for this drop, including the bad weather in the spring and lengthy permit procedures in an election year.”
Our plans for 2025
Once again, we have great ambitions for 2025. In order to realise them, we must continue to work together in 2025 and, above all, show the necessary discipline. Financial discipline on the one hand and targeted choices in terms of growth strategy and ESG efforts on the other.
👉 Financial discipline
Pieter Aerts: “We have a positive cash flow. This means we are in a position to invest, which will also be necessary to realise our ambitions in the energy market – investments in acquisitions, recruitment and training for example.
To further improve our cash position, we must ensure that we are paid as soon as possible for all work performed. That is why we must invoice the work in progress (WIP for short) on time. Control over structural costs is also a must.”
👉 Discipline in our ESG Strategy
In 2025, we will focus on 3 targets in particular
- Reducing our CO2 emissions even further, for example, stepping up our investment in electric vehicles, including delivery vans.
- Working safely, also a top priority in 2025.
- Becoming more inclusive: concretely, this means becoming an attractive company for female colleagues in management positions.
👉 Discipline in our growth strategy
Market conditions are quite challenging, but we want to remain a telecom champion, as we get the lion’s share of our turnover from our telecom business. There is still plenty of room for growth in Belgium in the fibre market. At the same time, we are looking at opportunities in the energy market, even though we are aware that we are not (yet) specialists in this area. Bavo: “Together we have thousands of years of telecom experience, but we have to work hard on increasing our knowledge of the energy market.”
Acquisitions remain an important pillar of our strategy. As a result of the 10 acquisitions in the past 6 years, we have gained a lot of knowledge from new colleagues. However, in this area too, discipline is important. Bavo: “We need to do our homework well to ensure we bring the right companies – with the right culture and ambitions – into the Circet family.”
