SKALICA PROTHERM UNAFFECTED BY CRISIS

During the time of consolidation, the Skalica producer of boilers was ready for an opportunity. The industry, in which there transpires a battle for every good brand, noticed the producer more than 15 years ago. Later, the German family company Vaillant made its way via Protherm to undiscovered regions. It strengthened Protherm’s development, business, fortifying it via its strategic daughter company for the concern production of modules in Trenčianske Stankovce. It means that the Skalica company now belongs among the few stable Slovak engineering firms. This production was launched in Senica in 1991 by the Prague company Transkom. In cooperation with Didaktik Skalica it started to produce electric boilers. Three years later Transkom started on gas boilers, but by that time the owners of the Czech company were producing in Záhorie under the name Protherm. But just the growth of production and its effectiveness, were not enough to expand beyond the Czech and Slovak markets. Increasing expenses for the new product development and technological modernization required a strategic partner. “The English investment fund Hepworth was not new to the industry. It already had the renowned French brand Saunier Duval,” remembers Peter Kuba, general director of Skalica’s Protherm Production. In European engineering there was, by the end of the millennium, mergers between competitors. Boiler production was not an exception. Regional brands with strong market shares were being purchased. The result is that this industry is now being controlled by a small group of companies rich in regional brands. From Germany there is, besides the leading Vaillant, the joint company Bosch-Buderus and Veissmann. To this elite club also belong the English Baxi Partnership and the Italian Merloni Group. I Pg 32