Serving the international auto industry AD Plastik

SERVING THE INTERNATIONAL AUTO INDUSTRY

AD Plastik d.d., the Croatian joint stock company for automotive plastic components, is located in Solin, the industrialised suburb of Split, on the Adriatic Coast. Vanja Švačko talks to Mr Mladen Peroš, president of the management board, about the huge expansion the company has experienced in the past few years.

The origins of AD Plastik are in Jugoplastika, the former Yugoslav giant which was founded in 1952 and played a major part in the socio-economic development of Croatia.

In 1992 it separated as an independent unit and soon appeared under the name of AD Plastik, transforming itself from a local firm to a multinational concern by launching new bases in Slovenia, Russia, Serbia and Romania.

“In 2001, the company was privatised under the ESOP scheme, which resulted in employees having around 20 per cent of the ownership,” explains Mr Peroš. Parallel to the organisational restructuring, AD Plastik had to reinvent itself at the level of business concepts in order to sustain its growth during the difficult economic times.

What makes a machine a car

Today AD Plastik’s product portfolio consists of plastic products mainly for the automotive industry. There are two basic groups of products: interior and exterior. Interior products include instrument boards, door panels, sun visors, roof lining, door handles, trunk lining and floor carpet and luggage.

Exterior products include front and rear bumpers and their components, wheel arch liners and undershields.

The company also uses the extrusion process to produce dynamic and static seals (e.g. glass runs, windscreen and waist belt seals.) from thermoplastic elastomers and polypropylene based materials.

Apart from covering the automotive industry, the company also offers a diverse range of other plastic products for the food and electrical industries, injection and extruded products as well as products for gardens and seats for sport facilities. Its plastic packaging products feature innovative design which makes them unique on the market.

Driven by technology

As a part of its survival strategy during the last two decades, AD Plastik rapidly integrated different technologies in the manufacturing process. Today they stick to five basic technologies for automotive components, focusing on quality rather than quantity. The technologies used are injection moulding, painting, thermoforming, extrusion and blowing.

The automotive industry requires high quality products and their continuous improvement. The company holds certificates ISO/TS 16949, ISO 14001 and Q1. AD Plastik has a modern laboratory in which highly professional staff are developing new testing methods for raw materials and using certified devices to define levels of different types of resistance and endurance for the products.

“One of the enduring goals for our company is consistent care for the environment,” explains Mr Peroš. “In order to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, we have also signed the UN’s Global Compact prinicples that oblige us to work towards reducing environmental impact and raising conscientiousness for the wider social community.”

Thanks to the knowledge and expertise of the company’s workforce, AD Plastik offers complex services that include design, development and validation of products to its clients (Renault, Dacia, PSA, AvtoVaz, VW, Ford, Fiat etc.). The company also collaborates with suppliers like Basell, Borealis, Engel and Krauss Maffei to name but a few. Steady growth

Despite unfavourable macroeconomic market circumstances, for the last few years AD Plastik has recorded an average annual growth of approx. 7 per cent. “What would best describe our recent strategy is investing time and money to expand in the east European markets, especially Europe’s soon-to-be largest car market Russia, which witnessed remarkable growth in 2012 with an increase of 11 per cent in car sales,” adds Mr Peroš.

It is significant that AD Plastik was in fact established in a country that doesn’t possess its own automotive industry. The origin of this business concept lies in the fact that the company was part of a large stateowned concern located in Croatia which was supplying car markets in the former Yugoslavia (Serbia).

Even at that time, the company was present on the Russian market, and that strong and long-term collaboration has paid off decades later. Today AD Plastik has three plants in Russia. “In 1995 we launched our first company there. In 2008 the second one was opened in Luga (Leningrad Oblast). Later on we signed a joint venture with the French

company Faurecia so that currently we own 40 per cent of FADP Luga,” continues Mr Peroš. “In July last year a new plant of AD Plastik in Kaluga, south-west from Moscow, has started working, which is delivering our products for Avtoframos in Moscow, Peugeot and Mitsubishi in Kaluga.”

Russia will definitely remain the key future market for AD Plastik, but the company strives to equally expand in other parts of Europe. It has opened a new unit in Mladenovac (Serbia) with around 12,000m2 of production area, where it manufactures and distributes automotive parts mainly for Fiat, but also roof lining for Renault, Novo Mesto, as well as products for the construction. In the Romanian joint venture company Euro Auto Plastic Systems, car parts are produced for Dacia. AD Plastik shares ownership of this company with Faurecia. Three Croatian sites located in Solin, and two in Zagreb are involved in providing services and new technologies mainly for Renault, PSA and Ford.

Philosophy of sustainable growth

“Although we continue to be an automotive company, our main goal is still to increase our production range beyond the automotive industry,” explains Mr Peroš.

Being a small automotive company in a huge and fast moving market, AD Plastik had to make significant investments over the years together, with its partners, in order to survive. “We see our future continuing in the direction of organic growth as it has so far, but we also want to expand our business independently or through the joint ventures with our partners. Sustainability of that idea depends on the strategic plans of our partners and on the credibility of our own business concepts. At the same time, we hope for some future acquisitions,” concludes Mr Peroš.

Although AD Plastik is already strongly recognised in European markets Croatia’s forthcoming accession to the EU will certainly help the company with faster product flow to the customers and simplified imports of raw materials from international suppliers. n

Visit: www.adplastik.hr