PR: The Russia financial crisis hurts, but it has a solution

14. 9. 2015

The Russia financial crisis hurts, but it has a solution
 
Export to Russia is falling, and this is affecting engineering the most. However, LAC, a manufacturer of industrial furnaces and dryers, is continuing to do business in Russia successfully. Nevertheless, this does bring considerable complications. More active cooperation with Poland, Great Britain, and Sweden is replacing the falling profits on the Russian market somewhat.
 
“Currency fluctuations and the overall weakening of the rouble are producing a difficult situation. Sometimes Russian firms bide their time and suspend their investments. This, along with the overall troubles of the Russian economy, is complicating our work in Russia considerably, because it is making our machines uncompetitive. Many existing customers are thus left with no choice but to give preference to a cheaper domestic variant,” says LAC sales director Václav Hnaníček of the situation.
 
Despite this, LAC is not giving up on trade with Russia. This country still continues to be a major export territory. “We hope that we will overcome this difficult situation somehow and that the Russian economy will improve. We would hate to give up on cooperation with Russia. Nevertheless, our Russian business has already dropped by nearly 50%. We are thus losing up to 10 million crowns a year because of the Russia crisis,” explains Jiří Crhák, LAC’s executive director.
 
Although sales are dropping on the Russian market, on the Polish market, meanwhile, LAC has employed its line of industrial furnaces and dryers to great success. LAC is celebrating similar successes in cooperation with Great Britain and Sweden. “We have recently strongly felt the long-term growth of Polish engineering. Many investments by multinational corporations are now flowing into Poland. These newly founded operations need adequate high-quality equipment, and above all reliable machines. And our company, LAC, is able to supply these,” Hraníček states.
 
LAC, s.r.o. is a purely Czech firm that has grown its way from a 10x10 m garage up to manufacturing, storage, and administrative spaces with a total area of 25,000 m2. It develops and manufactures refractory castable shapes and industrial furnaces and dryers. It has over 50 lines of standard furnaces and dryers in its assortment, and it develops 8 custom projects per month. Since its founding in 1992, it has manufactured over 12,000 furnaces, which glow in over 35 countries worldwide. And to give you an idea of their growth—in 2000 they had 114 employees and a turnover of 85 million crowns, while today they have 240 employees and a turnover rising towards 324 million.
 
 
LAC Marketing Department Director
Pavel Herůfek
+420 777 566 353
herufek@lac.cz