This Swedish multinational concern is one of Europe’s leading
forestry products companies, producing sawn timber, packaging
paper and packaging. The company has an annual turnover of around
2.2 billion USD and employs 18,000 people throughout Europe.
ING Bank arranged acquisition of Juhoslovenských celulózok a
papierní, a.s (JCP) for the Swedish concern in 1997. By the
end of 1997 it had acquired a 91.2% stake in JCP with a holding
of 1,347,520 shares. Today, Assi-Domän controls around 94% of
JCP shares.
This acquisition, worth approximately 1.2 billion SKK, is Assi
Domän’s biggest investment in central and eastern Europe.
New investments of 240 million SKK, 40% of which was spent on
environmental programs and restructuring the company’s management,
helped improve both production quality and productivity. This
can be clearly seen in the award of ISO Quality Certification
as well as increased production and operating profit. In 1996,
JCP ended the year with net profits of 22.3 million SKK on sales
of 3.442 billion SKK and costs of 3.42 billion SKK. Exports
accounted for approximately 45% of production. In 1998, the
company posted an operating profit of 380 million SKK on sales
of 3.651 billion SKK.
JCP exported around 60 per cent of production in 1998 and work
productivity increased by 15% compared with 1997. ADP has 1,987
employees in Štúrovo and average pay was 11,139 SKK in 1998.
The company’s future objectives are to increase work productivity,
production quality and capacity and protect the environment
through the implementation of new technologies and investments
in an information system, infrastructure and environmental programs.
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In the early nineties, Siemens rapidly increased investments
in Slovakia. An official representation was established
in 1993 and various production projects started. Today,
the 11 companies in the Siemens concern have over 7,000
employees in Slovakia, giving an annual turnover of more
than 18 billion SKK and exports of more than 2 billion
SKK. Foreign investments implemented so far total 5 billion
SKK, ranking the company as the biggest foreign investors.
The company produces cable bundles for Ford and electric
engines in Michalovce, cable bundles for Volkswagen in
Nitra, light sources in Nové Zámky, and parts from magnetic
materials in Horná Streda. SWH in Bratislava deals with
the development of computer programs and software. Within
their area of business, these companies with secured sales
exporting nearly 100% of their production are the draught
horse of Slovak industry and a substantial factor for
improving the country’s trade balance in the future |
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Volkswagen Bratislava, s.r.o.
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In 1991, the German concern Volkswagen set up a production
plant in Bratislava, using rooms leased from the company BAZ
Bratislava, a.s. The company started with a production rate
of 15-20 Volkswagen Golfs per day; today it produces 500 automobiles,
1,300 gearboxes and about 3,000 gearbox components. After seven
years of development, the company was chosen as the one with
the best production quality within the concern in Europe. This
was also one of the reasons for relocating the manufacture of
‘Syncro’ vehicles to Bratislava, manufactured according to the
individual requirements of the customer.
Such a production increase would not be possible without a qualified
quality workforce, modern technology and, of course, annual
investments totalling about 2.5 billion SKK. Slovak subcontractors
supply 80% of all the components for the production of gearboxes,
and they must comply with the strict quality requirements of
Volkswagen. In 1998, the number of employees exceeded 5,000.
Only 1% of production is destined for the Slovak market, while
42% is exported to Germany and 18% to Switzerland.
Further Volkswagen activities in Slovakia are carried out by
Volkswagen Elektrické Systémy, s.r.o. in Nitra. After 2 years
of operation, the company employs 1,400 employees and annual
investment in the company are 0.5 billion SKK. |
In 1998 German concern based in Hanover established a joint
venture (Continental Matador,s.r.o.) with the Slovak company
Matador, a.s. for the manufacture of radial truck tyres. The
first tyre rolled out of the plant in January 1998. The goal
of the project is more effective utilisation of manufacturing
capacities and increased competitiveness for both companies
in the global marketplace.
The German concern is the know-how provider, while Matador provides
the infrastructure of its manufacturing plant in Puchov. The
Slovak tyre manufacturer holds 24% of the registered capital,
while the German side owns 76%.
Investments in this joint venture will top 190 million DEM.
The company plans for a turnover of 150 million DEM this year,
increasing to 350 million DEM in 2003.
This year’s production volume of 300,000 truck tyres should
increase to 1.5 million tyres in 2001. A further expansion in
production to 2 million all-steel radial tyres is planned. The
planned volume of tyres will be divided according to the share
ratio of the joint venture, with 1.1 million tyres going to
Continental and 0.4 million tyres to Matador.
Continental Matador will employ approximately 800 employees.
In this joint venture Continental and Matador will be seeking
further cooperation possibilities for the production of radial
truck tyres. At present, cooperation in the field of tractor
tyres and machinery for rubber industry production appears to
be perspective and bilaterally advantageous. The Continental
concern had a turnover of around 13 billion DEM in 1998, a 15.8%
increase compared with 1997. These figures rank Continental
as number four in global tyre production. The number of employees
reached 59,000 worldwide |
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Coca Cola Beverages Slovakia GmbH
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Coca Cola Beverages Slovakia is the biggest daughter
company of the multinational Coca Cola Beverages Corporation
in CEE countries. It has built four distribution centres (Bratislava,
Banská Bystrica, Košice and Pieštany) since its start-up in
1993. The manufacturing plant is located at the Pieštany center,
where production started in April 1994. The company is the leading
investor in the food industry and one of the leading investors
in Slovakia overall. Total investments are 7,894 million Sk.
The basic economic figures show a growing trend from 1993. Turnover
increased from 453 million SKK in 1993 to 1,942 million SKK
in 1998. Similarly, investments rose from 242 million SKK to
2,702 million SKK. There are 636 employees in the Slovak Republic |
ALCATEL Slovakia was established on 1 July 1999 by merging two
units of the multinational corporation - Alcatel SEL TLH, a.s.
Liptovský Hrádok and Alcatel Slovakia, s.r.o. Bratislava.
Alcatel is a strong and stable international company with a
presence in more than 130 countries worldwide. Initial investments
were realised after establishing a joint venture between Alcatel
SEL AG Stuttgart and TESLA Liptovský Hrádok in 1991.
The main activities of the company are the manufacture of appliances
and provision of services in the area of telecommunication and
information infrastructure. Public digital exchanges with a
total capacity of 3,228,000 connections have been produced since
the company started. More than half of these have been supplied
to Slovak Telecom, substantially influencing the process of
digitalisation of the public telecommunications network.
Alcatel Slovakia is focused on delivering enterprise communication
systems, data network equipment and end appliances. The development
of a new generation of software for Alcatel’s 1000 S12 public
digital exchange system is the main task of the software development
centre, operating since 1997.
Proof of the company’s successful work in Slovakia is the highly
professional workforce and the highest quality in equipment,
services and customer relations. The company was awarded the
Quality Prize of the Slovak Republic in 1995 and 1998, which
is the result of the quality management system implemented according
to ISO 9002 standards in 1994.
Alcatel employs 545 people in Slovakia, the majority of who
are university educated and young professionals. The excellent
financial results have allowed the company to support various
organisations in the field of healthcare, education, culture
and sports. The value of material and financial gifts and subsidies
to non-profit organisations comes to nearly 2 million SKK annually. |
The interest of the INA Gruppe in the development of
cooperation started in 1983 with the licensed production of
welded needle bearings with ZVL Skalica. The political changes
allowed complete deployment of the company’s activities. A joint
venture named INA Skalica was established in 1992, in which
the INA Gruppe initially owned a 70% share. In 1994 it bought
the remaining 30% share to become sole holder of the company
with a registered capital of 66,154 million SKK. The capital
was increased to 600,506 million SKK in 1996-7.
Investments in INA Skalica amounted to 1.3 billion SKK over
the period 1994-8. They were mostly spent on the construction
of a 12,000 sq. m manufacturing plant in 1996-7. A second 10,000
sq. metre manufacturing plant was started in June 1998.
The manufacturing programme is focused on the production of
turned cages with needle rollers, motor parts, inner bearing
ringlets, single- and double-row ball bearings. Companies such
as Volkswagen, OPEL, BMW, Daimler Benz, STIHL, HUSQVARNA are
amongst the biggest customers.
INA Skalica has around 1,050 employees. |
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