BUSINESS

Safely Upwards With ALVE

There is an inconspicuous company, at first sight, called ALVE spol. s r.o in the small town of

Veřovice under the Beskid mountains. However, it is, in fact, a very important company and their

products travel all around Europe. We talked about them and many other things with company

CEO, Mrs Mervaldová.

How did you get into the position of

CEO of ALVE? The company focuses on

manufacturing aluminium ladders and

steps. Were you more of a ‘technical type’

as a child?

No, I am an economist and a banker.

I started at ALVE in the position of financial

director. After about two years, the owners

of the company, who had been managing

the company themselves, were looking

for new management. I guess they saw

some potential in me and offered me the

position. Considering the fact that I was

a sort of exception in a traditionally male

world, I took it as a challenge. And I have

been here for twelve years.

Can you introduce us to ALVE? What

do you focus on, what products do you

offer?

ALVE has been here since 1992, so next

year it will be our thirtieth birthday. It

is a pure Czech company with Czech

capital; there is no foreign property. We

are proud to be a Czech company with

Czech funding and Czech banks.

The range of products has been pretty

much stable from the beginning - it is the

aluminium programme: ladders, steps,

scaffolding, assembly platforms and

various accessories to these products. In

2016, we also added a special construction

division to the portfolio, that is, tailored

products for companies across the whole

industry.

Do you have an established collaboration

with any logistics company?

ALVE also has two subsidiaries, in Slovakia

and Romania. The Romanian company

delivers mostly to the Romanian market

and neighbouring territories. In Slovakia we

have a branch for the Slovakian market. In

the Czech Republic we have the registered

office and the management of the whole

group. We manage all exports to Western,

Central and partly also Eastern Europe from

here.

You said that you target companies

mainly with special construction. The

second part of the company produces

mainly ladders that you distribute via

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sellers and hobby markets. Are you

expanding this network or is it sufficient?

The territory in the Czech Republic is very

small. Therefore, our goal for the Czech

Republic is to hold the first position among

traditional Czech producers, because we

all should be supporting Czech products.

We also prefer Czech suppliers. Our goal is

to maintain the market.

It is great that a company from such

a small town is so successful worldwide.

What is your driving force? What do you

consider to be the basis for success?

A stable ownership portfolio, which has had

the same strategy for twenty years. These

people said in the beginning that they want

to develop the company, to keep earned

money in the company for its continued

development. And we haven’t changed this

direction in the past twenty years, which is

very important, in my opinion.

It is both about the employees and the

owners; some of the owners are also

employees at the same time: they tend to

the company, monitor development, and

are stated as employees in the hierarchy.

You can communicate the strategy much

better this way; people know what they

should be doing.

What are you proud of as CEO? What

went really well for you recently?

I work in the men’s world. I don’t know

any other European ladder manufacturer

managed by a woman. Women mostly end

up in the roles of financial directors, HR

directors, etc. It is not standard to reach the

highest level. It may be because of the fact

that women are more aware of the risks, we

are not such shooters.

Me and the production manager are the

only two women in the team of ten people

and that is a good thing. All-male or allfemale teams never work. We are more

emotional and rational in some things,

men are more keen to take the risks. And

you need both sides. I struggled with it

a lot during the first years. Now I got used

to it and I must say it has some benefits.

Women’s thinking is different from the

men’s. Women can look at the same

problem and bring another point of view.

But most of all I am lucky to have colleagues

who have been here for a long time, in

some cases since the establishment of

the company. These people identify with

the company and are still enjoying it. This

is one of the reasons why ALVE lasted so

long: the people who joined in the 90s and