Stefka is a retired general and former chief of staff of the Czech Army Tatra group sales down 46% at CZK 2.2bn in H1 CTK | 22 September 2009 Koprivnice, Sept 21 (CTK) – The group of Czech lorry maker TATRA generated sales of Kc2.185bn in the first half of 2009, a drop of 46 percent from Kc4.071bn in the same year-ago period, the company’s chief executive Ronald Adams has told CTK. Adams did not disclose the company’s bottom line. The fall in sales was due to lack of orders which made Tatra lay off 1,000 staff in June 2008 to June 2009. The firm plans to dismiss further 850 people in the second half of the year. At end-2009, Tatra should have around 2,200 employees. Tatra’s markets are still very passive and orders for Tatra as well as all the other lorry producers still come at an extremely slow pace owing to the influences of the global financial crisis, Adams said. A total of 415 cars left Tatra factory gates in the first half of this year compared with 947 in the first half of 2008. The main markets this year are the Czech republic, India and Russia. Only cutting of costs related to production and raising the volume of orders and sales will save Tatra in the difficult period of the economic and financial crisis, Adams said. Tatra saves on investment as well. In the first six months, the company invested Kc65m compared with Kc209m in the same year-ago period. Adams hopes the global crisis has touched the bottom of its cycle. Situation related to orders can change quickly and Tatra sees new market opportunities in South America, while India still remains strong and the market in Australia is also beginning to improve, Adams said. Russia is still an area hit by the crisis and the situation will not probably change next year, he said. The crisis already affected Tatra’s sales in 2008 when the parent company posted a loss of Kc572 after a net profit of Kc859m the previous year. This year, sales will fall by around 40 percent from Kc5.9bn in 2008. Consolidated revenues of the Tatra group grew by Kc168m year-on-year to Kc7.869bn last year. The group posted a loss of Kc712m compared with a Kc901m profit in 2007. In September, Tatra hired Vladimir Bail, a former long-time chief executive of steel maker Evraz Vitkovice Steel, who should improve its economic results in the new post of executive director . Bail has become e member of loss-making national air carrier CSA in the past days for the same reason. Tatra, based in Koprivnice, northern Moravia, has been controlled by four investors from the Czech Republic and abroad since 2006, represented by former supervisory board member and current board of directors member Ronald Adams. Their company Black River now holds 51 percent of Tatra shares. Almost 41 percent are in the hands of TATRA Holdings and small shareholders own around 8 percent of shares in total. Note from Kees Smit: Unlike earlier mentiond on this website, Vladimir Bail has not become Tatra’s new CEO, but has been appointed in the new post of executive director. Ronald Adams has stayed on as CEO at Tatra.
