Securely established in the Polish market
“We have been working with the Poles for several years, and it is pleasing that our share of the Polish market, which has great growth potential, is increasing every year. After signing a large contract with “Stoen” last year, we will extend this cooperation this year as well – with this company, which is larger than the Lithuanian “Energijos skirmish operatorius” (ESO), we signed a 45 million. EUR contract, which stipulates that we will have to produce 380,000 units for the Polish market within two years. smart electricity meters and perform other related work”, says the company’s director, Martynas Čereška.
This time, the obligations of the Lithuanian company that won the tender include not only the supply of meters, but also the installation of a new system, while the company’s partners in Poland, the company “Esmetric”, will be responsible for network installation and connection.
“There is no single decisive factor that guarantees success when working in the Polish market, rather there is a universal trend that can be observed when working in other countries as well – if you want to enjoy success in our sector, you must be a reliable supplier. This issue became particularly sensitive during the pandemic, when there was a shortage of various production components, the cost of transporting goods in containers was extremely high, supply chains were broken, and when suppliers did not fulfill their obligations, there were constant delays, the consequences of which were felt by both customers and customers. We were able to demonstrate our value and reliability very successfully at this stage, as not a single order was late and all work was done on time, which greatly helped to strengthen our position.
However, the responsibility of the manufacturer is no less important than the criterion of reliability, because very often the supplier delivers the product and says goodbye until the next transaction, while we follow a different approach – we pay special attention not only to delivery, but also to subsequent service, we take into account customer complaints and comments, and solve problems immediately , if there are any”, is the reason why they win competitions in Poland, says M. Čereška.
He could also supply his products to Lithuania
In Lithuania, the first phase of changing smart meters is currently underway, when the meters are changed for business customers and those who consume more than 1000 kWh per year. By 2026, when the second phase begins,
it is planned to install about 1.2 million of smart meters – this is 75 percent. of all meters in Lithuania. Polish networks until 2028 committed to update 80% own electricity meters, and by 2030 – All.
According to M. Čereška, the unsurpassed leaders in the process of replacing smart meters are Scandinavians – Swedes,
Norwegians and Finns. The indicators of Finland are particularly good, as the indicator of smart metering meters in this country already reaches 100 percent. The most lagging countries in Europe at the moment are Greece and Germany, where the progress of this process is still within the limits of a single-digit percentage.
“When it comes to the process of changing smart meters, there are no big differences between Lithuania and Poland – both countries are currently at similar stages of implementation. The only difference is that in our country one company is responsible for the networks – ESO, while in Poland the networks are managed by six different companies, most of which are larger than ours – serving from 1.2 to 7 million users. users. Since there is a certain competition between local companies in Poland, this also increases certain quality indicators”, says the manager of Elgama-Elektronika.
M. Čereška is convinced that Lithuania is moving quite successfully in this process, but it is a bit disappointing that currently a non-Lithuanian company supplies meters to the Lithuanian market – French electricity meters are installed in Lithuanian homes.
“Our company also participated in the tender and monitored its progress. We saw that even after the announcement of the winner, the meters were not supplied to the market for more than a year, the prices of the equipment were also indexed, although it had not yet started to be supplied, which is already a certain signal about the situation of the manufacturer. These are not healthy processes and there are questions about the reliability of the company, but it must be recognized that we are talking about large and time-consuming projects, so certain difficulties may occur. However, I am personally happy that when we worked both in Poland and in other markets, we managed to avoid such problems or supply delays, so I could confidently say that we could implement this project in Lithuania much more smoothly”, says M about the nuances of the smart meter replacement competition in Lithuania. Chereshka.
In the future – expansion and increase in the number of employees
Although the name of the company “Elgama-Elektronika” is also known in Israel, Greece, Paraguay or Chile, because Lithuanian smart electricity meters also travel there, according to the head of the company, the war-ravaged Ukraine is much more important to the company.
“We have been working in Ukraine for six years, so this market, our partners working there and the needs of consumers are well known to us, but the war showed how fragile everything can be. Developing business in such a market as the current Ukraine is dangerous enough, but we managed to stiffen business processes in such a way that only in the first years of the war we had a certain “hole” due to disrupted logistics. Then everything stopped, and not only here – certain supply processes were suspended by the whole of Europe, because they were watching how things would develop. However, at the end of 2022, the supply of our production to Ukraine was restored, and it was a record year for us, because it was necessary to update the electricity infrastructure smoothly, on time, high-quality and on a large scale,” says M. Čereška about the challenges she faced.
Currently, the company is implementing pilot projects in other European markets – the Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, and has plans to develop activities in Germany and Spain. According to the head of the company, such decisions are dictated by the fact that currently working only on the Ukrainian and Polish markets is quite risky, so the aim is to diversify the activities.
“In the last three years, our income has grown seven times, but the number of employees has not increased so quickly and has only grown by about 15 percent during the same period. – the company currently has 96 employees. Admittedly this shirt is getting tight and would love to get more specialists on the team but like most companies in the country we are having trouble trying to find them. At the moment, we are solving the problem of staff shortage by inviting citizens of other countries to work, so we also have employees from Poland, Ukraine and even distant Brazil, but we also have high hopes for our youth, so we are especially looking for not only motivated and experienced people who are ready to constantly improve their knowledge employees, but also young people looking for an internship, who will be able to grow professionally and continue their career with us”, says the company manager M. Čereška.
Tags: ElgamaElektronika manufacture smart electricity meters Poland project million euros
