Leader of architectural lighting ES-SYSTEM

LEADER OF ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING

ES-SYSTEM Group, headquartered in Krakow, Poland, is the leading national producer of professional LED lighting technology for different sectors of the construction industry. “Our company is made to measure European standards. We are ready to realise any spectacular vision of an architect,” says Romuald Wojtkowiak, the group’s president of the board. Dariusz Balcerzyk reports.

ES-SYSTEM is the biggest Polish company in the Polish lighting sector. It holds an almost 12 per cent share in the area of professional lighting for public, architectural and industrial facilities as well as for illumination and specialist lighting.

The company was founded in 1990. The idea behind it was based on the energy-saving effect in each lighting solution, achieved by the application of modern technologies.

“For years the ES-SYSTEM group has been influencing the market of professional lighting solutions, defining the direction of the sector’s development. Our products are not only energy-saving but also ‘more

intelligent’ owing to the application of the newest control, feeding and communication modules and electronic solutions implemented by the company. What distinguishes us from the competition is our philosophy. We do not just sell products but offer complex solutions. Every year we introduce up to 20 new lighting systems to the market, developed by our design team and the R&D department,” explains Mr Wojtkowiak.

Global provider

The company owns three production plants: in Wilkasy, Rzeszów, and Dobczyce. The last, named ES-SYSTEM NT, is the group’s newest and most technologically advanced plant, opened in 2010. ES-SYSTEM NT (the NT acronym stands for New Technology) has a production plant with a total area of 6400m2, in which there are three manufacturing bays, a high bay warehouse and electronics warehouse.

The company makes complete, modern emergency and escape lighting systems suitable for installation in any building. The concept combines a unique design with innovative technological solutions including advanced electronics and power supply devices. It is also well known for its programmable control units for emergency lighting circuits.

ES-SYSTEM NT also makes various LED products. Its Triangle LED System, Open LED System and a new concept for suspended ceiling lighting are just a few examples of products that met with a great deal of interest during the latest Light & Building in Frankfurt, the world’s biggest trade fair for lighting and building services technology.

“It is worth mentioning that the process of construction of the Dobczyce unit was financed only from our resources. We used PLN 30 million from emission of stocks in 2007, the year we entered the Warsaw Stock Exchange, mostly for the modernisation of our plant in Wilkasy. Despite this expendi-

ture ES-SYSTEM is a very financially secure company,” says Mr Wojtkowiak.

The group employs more than 800 people. Its annual sales reached more than PLN 169 million in 2011 (approx. €40 million), while in the first half of 2012 it was estimated at PLN 72.5 million and increased by 3.3 per cent compared to the first half of 2011.

“We act globally,” points out Mr Wojtkowiak. Exports make up 22 per cent of overall sales. The ES-SYSTEM products are sold worldwide, with 67 per cent of exports going to the EU countries. Russia, Sweden, the UK, Austria, France, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands are the group’s main foreign markets.

Time to grow

“We have everything that is needed to develop: more than 20 years of market experience, great know-how, numerous references for LED technology, all the necessary certifications, an interesting product offer adjusted to the expectations of our wholesale customers and a modern technical background. We’re not the follower of modern trends; we are those who create them. So it’s about time to grow,” says Mr Wojtkowiak.

At the end of September 2012, ESSYSTEM prepared a new strategy of development for the years 2013–2015. The company plans to broaden the scale of its basic activity through investments and intensifying actions in the area of wholesale, as well as further expansion abroad in selected markets.

In regard to its product range, the company is planning the further development of its offer based on LED technology, which will constitute about 30 per cent of its sales in 2015. This strategy assumes a growth in the capital group’s share of the domestic market of professional lighting to 25 per cent by the end of 2015 from the current 20 per cent. At the same time the group’s export sales are to go up to 41 per cent by the end of 2015. By the end of 2015 sales of the standard lighting will constitute 55 per cent of overall turnover – 30 per cent of which will be LED solutions and the remaining 15 per cent electronics and service. n