BUSINESS

A Slightly Different Company… Petr Salvet, Executive officer of the Czech branch of Vyncke, comes from our region. He lives here and enjoys spending his leisure time in the Beskid Mountains. He has been through a few managerial positions in his career, not only in industry. In 2004, as he says, thanks to a lucky coincidence, he got a job with the small production plant of Vyncke, and has been considerably engaged in its development, the enhancement of staff competence, and the enforcement of the brand both within the Vyncke international group and among all businesses in the Moravian-Silesian Region. .Mr Salvet, you often claim that you represent a “slightly different company”. Can you explain what exactly you mean? I believe that if you came to see our plant in Chlebovice, you would not need any explanation. Coming to the very edge of the industrial zone of Frýdek-Místek, you pass a wood with bridges over a brook and benches for staff to relax or have a wi-fi covered meeting. Behind the administrative headquarters, integrated in the production hall building with stunning architecture, there is a pond, a multifunctional sports ground, an orchard and a little vineyard. Inside the building, contrasting with the functionalist design of the offices, there is a bar with beer on tap, a wood interior, and a patio. The long history of the company is reflected in the anvil on display in front of the entrance and the front of one of the first Vyncke boilers built in the brick wall at the reception desk. The boiler was made by company founder Louis Vyncke, a visionary Flemish blacksmith who, in 1912, in the heart of European textile industries, came to understand the energetic potential of flax waste. That is when he began converting coal boilers to flax waste fired boilers, providing textile producers with the energy necessary in the production of yarn and cloth. His idea to produce energy for industrial processes out of the businesses’ production 12 ǀ POSITIV 4/2019

waste still represents a great deal of Vyncke’s current business strategy. Simple steam boilers, however, have been replaced with large energy producing systems providing energy in various forms in an environmentally-friendly way, distributing them worldwide. Today, the fourth generation, with Peter and Dieter Vyncke, continues as the technological world leader in the production of clean energy out of waste and biomass. Why did the company owners decide to locate a plant in our region? What is our added value? The company came to the Moravian-Silesian Region in 2000, when it rented a production hall in Lískovec. First, the plant was only a production branch but soon an engineering department was established and the business started growing. The competence of local technicians and engineers increased as well thanks to their expertise and skill. In 2012, the company moved from the rented facility to their own premises in Chlebovice near Frýdek-Místek, and the total added value of engineering and the implementation of projects exceeded that of the actual production. The development of our Czech enterprise is based on the industrial background of the Moravian-Silesian Region. Many small and medium sized mechanical-engineering companies operate here, and have become partners