How has the fact
that your company is situated in one of the fastest
developing areas of the country influenced the development
of your company in recent years?
There are many rural areas in this part of the
country, that are less inhabited then elsewhere.
On the other hand I consider this region to be
very industrial. I agree with you that the region
is developing really above the average, the reason
for that is that we are close to the German borders
and I would like to stress the importance of the
newly built highway as well. Also I would like
to stress all efforts and attempts made by cities
and towns to attract businessmen and business
activities to their areas. The development of
our company is very much connected to this region.
For example, we manage to set up connections to
5000 new households each year. From this amount,
80 percent of these houses are newly built, and
we can make some estimation based on the statistical
evidence of the increase that we have now, that
within ten years the number of households connected
to our system, might have the size of a middle
size town, like Pilsen.
The liberalisation of the market is on the
way, what are your prognoses regarding the future
position of your company on the market?
The liberalisation is definitely on the way.
In the first year of the liberalisation of the
market we will have the possibility to sign contracts
with the customers exceeding 9 GWh annually. Of
course, the customers are taking advantage of
this liberalisation. The distribution companies
have to decrease prices on the market, the services
are more extended now and the quality is on a
constant increase. Concerning the future, I actually
think it will be good for us. The market will
operate according to the EU laws. I suppose the
Czech Republic will enter the European Union in
2004 and will need to change and be in accordance
with the laws in this sector in accordance with
the EU laws. Concerning our company, it will bring
us much additional work but on the other hand
we will eventually benefit from that.
What will be the new services you will offer
to the customers, in order to remain a dynamic
player?
Beside the primary supply of electricity, our
company focuses also on energetic audits, energy
management consultancies to other companies, we
support the sale of service called thermovision,
i.e. heat leakage detection of buildings, we will
also introduce major improvements on the quality
of our electricity supplies and on the heating
itself, we also provide technical help and other
related services such as operation and maintenance
of customers´ distribution equipment. We
also support the construction projects in this
region and we work closely with the operators
of public lighting. We are also focusing on telecommunications.
Recently, we have started a new business, which
is IT technology related. Besides all that I must
also emphasize our concern regarding the ecology,
we have a project called green energy and now
we are working on the development of new forms
of heating.
Green energy and other new sources of energy
could be a serious competitive advantage in the
future.
For the time being we only develop it for the
prestige of the company, it doesn't bring us any
benefits. We are actually surprised that there
are so many customers on the Czech market, but
still their number is not as high as the number
of customers using other sources of energy. We
guarantee them that the electricity is supplied
or produced in an environmentally clean way, and
it will be recycled afterwards and can be used
again. It's quite a new product in the Czech Republic.
As far as I know, we are the only company having
this kind of service in the country. The customer
has to pay a little bit of additional costs for
that but we guarantee that this additional cost
will go to the construction of similar kind of
energy suppliers.
The government plans to integrate all the distribution
companies and include them into CEZ. How would
you be able to use that for your benefit?
The government really has got that plan, and we
are waiting when it will happen. On the other hand
we cannot predict what the future of that united
co-operation will actually bring. Of course, all
of our steps are leading to the benefit of this
company but we believe that all we do now will also
be helpful in the future both for the integrated
company and us. |
You had a very good strategy of getting closer
to the customers and this has shown already results.
In this region there are a lot of foreign investors
and also you are very close to the border. How
close is your co-operation with foreign clients?
We don´ t make any difference between the
foreign customers and local ones, they are our
customers being equally important for us. Of course,
we have lots of experience and a long tradition
working with foreigners. We can guarantee that
the new investors will have the possibility of
choosing a competent electricity supplier. We
can also guarantee that all the services will
be on the highest level, just like anywhere else
in Europe. I can also assure them that they will
have good prices. Our prices in their absolute
value have not changed in the past ten years.
In fact they have been declining. Investors can
choose from a lot of really competitive companies
in the Czech Republic.
France is the second largest investor in the
country, what benefits does it bring to the Czech
Republic?
France has very strong positions on the international
market, and plus we have always had good relationship
with them. France is not only interesting for
us from the historical point of view or for tourism
or for the great wine they have there. Our company
is also co-operating with French companies. First
of all, we are buying from them some of our equipment
to our distribution network. We have a good co-operation
with firms of Alstom and Schneider Electric. Also
we have good experience with the know how from
EDF. I find it very good in an innovative company.
We have implemented their know how in the field
"life working on medium voltage", where
EDF is the absolute number 1. We are also training
our employees in those procedures, which makes
us the most developed utility in this part of
the country. The benefit from it, is that we don´
t have to cut off the electricity even while our
specialists are working on the overhead lines
or cables.
You have already reached a good level of development.
What do you think, once the Czech Republic enters
the EU, how strong will be your company position
in the competition to the other distributors?
Once we enter the European Union I expect the
competition to be on a really high level. It should
be equal to the one they have in Germany and also
it is natural that the laws and the regulation
will have to be adapted to the EU rules. It means
there are no constrains to trade, and you can
only work according to the legislation.
You mentioned new services that you are already
implementing what will be the ones that you are
particularly proud of?
I would like to say that the energy audit is
looking very interesting and it's a high demand
for that service. Another interesting idea is
the heat pumps, you take the heat from the ground
for example or from the sea and you transfer it
to the electricity for house usage. Recently this
product has been very successful for us. There
is still a big potential for us in the technical
spheres. There are still many more customers that
would like us to operate and maintain their electrical
equipment. There is also an increasing number
of cities or villages that we are contracting
for the supply of electrical services. In this
region alone there are 600 communities and so
far 100 of them have been interested in using
our services for the public lighting and relevant
facilities. We started this offer about 1 year
ago, I expect in the next 3 years to have about
50 percent of the total market in this region.
Could you give us a brief overview, what is
your professional background. How did you become
the head of Západoceská Energetika?
My career is not very exciting because I have worked
in this company for 30 years. Before I was the Supervisor
of the Technical Office and services, and step by
step I have reached the top. My previous position
was, Technical Director and for the past four years
I have been the C.E.O. It is a challenging job.
The company has dramatically changed within the
past ten years. We have totally changed the services
to the customers. We have completely changed our
programmes in order to become more customers friendly.
We have created new, modern parts of the company
and tried to create a new corporate culture. Also,
we have supported the development of IT technologies.
We have changed the segmentation of our customers
and the ways to get closer to our customers. We
have completely changed our process of risk management.
And at last but not the least we have totally re-organised
our distribution network in recent times as we are
supporting our processes by the CRM systems. So
it is really a challenge. |
