STA, 18 October 2019 - Iskra Mehanizmi, a development supplier for mechatronic solutions in the automotive, medical and home appliance industries, is feeling upbeat ahead of 2020 after lower than expected profit in 2019. In what is a EUR 30 million investment, the company is expanding production and relocating to Brnik, just off Ljubljana airport.
Iskra Mehanizmi CEO and majority owner Marjan Pogačnik told the STA that the company, which has around 400 employees at its Lipnica location near Radovljica and 300 more in Kamnik, started building a new production and offices complex in Brnik in August.
The production hall should be ready at the start and the offices part at the end of 2020 to provide for 20,000 square metres of new space. This is currently the combined surface area available at Lipnica and Kamnik. While the entire Kamnik production is to be relocated to Brnik, the fate of the Lipnica location is not clear yet.
Pogačnik said the EUR 880,000 in profit recorded in 2018 as the company saw a 5% growth in sales had been below expectations, but he ascribed this to higher pay costs, investments into new projects and the foray into medical solutions.
Things have already improved this year when profit is planned to be on par with previous years, meaning at around EUR 4 million.
Pogačnik said things are looking even better than that and announced a EUR 2 million increase in net revenue this year to over 90 million. Close to EUR 100 million is projected for 2020 and EUR 120 million for 2022. Around 100 new jobs are also expected in the coming years.
The company has so far not been feeling the cooling in the auto industry particularly: "Buyers are telling us that they are experiencing a drop of slightly over 10% in general, but have not been feeling this directly to such an extent and are operating according to plans," said Pogačnik.
