TechnoNIKOL company executives. Interview with the General Director of OOO Technonikol. How has the crisis affected your business?

In the fall of 1990, MIPT sophomores Sergei Kolesnikov and Igor Rybakov decided to earn extra money and got a job as a roofer. The part-time work captivated them so much that four years later they became partners and launched the production of roofing materials in Vyborg. Over time, they took up heat and waterproofing materials.

Today, TechnoNIKOL Corporation is one of the largest manufacturers building materials in the world, successfully competing with the manufacturer stone wool Rockwool with a century of history, which launched production in Russia in the late 1990s. TechnoNIKOL has 52 production sites in seven countries (Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Italy, Great Britain, Germany), the corporation supplies products to 95 countries.

In 2018, Forbes listed the fortunes of Kolesnikov and Rybakov, each of whom owns 50% in TechnoNIKOL, at $1.2 billion. The calculations took into account not only production unit TechnoNIKOL, whose revenue last year amounted to 79.2 billion rubles, but the Nikol-PACK plant is also a cardboard manufacturer.

Rybakov and Kolesnikov are so unlike each other that they seem to be antipodes. The first one is emphatically assembled, as if a spring is stretched inside it. Kolesnikov is fond of biathlon and is at war with officials churning out laws and instructions in the antimonopoly committee " Business Russia", which leads. Rybakov, on the other hand, is extremely sociable, does not skimp on gestures and can spend hours reflecting on how entrepreneurs are changing the world for the better. He is a frequent guest of secular parties, successfully trying on the image of an imposing businessman.

Friends of the entrepreneurs say that it was the difference in temperaments that caused Rybakov to move away from operational management at TechnoNIKOL and focused on own business. In 2014, together with his wife Ekaterina, he invested 1 billion rubles in the Rybakov Fund, which finances more than a dozen social programs aimed, among other things, at developing entrepreneurial communities. In 2017, Rybakov became interested in the venture capital market and, together with investor Oscar Hartman, founded the Larix fund to invest in platform solutions and marketplaces.

Corporation "TechnoNIKOL" for more than 25 years - a serious period. Kolesnikov says that he still does not intend to sell his share and retire, - he spent too much effort with a partner to build an international business. And he doesn't plan to stop there. In 2018, TechnoNIKOL plans to invest about 2 billion rubles in expanding production. In an interview with Forbes Kolesnikov, that TechnoNIKOL has already gained a foothold in the European market, now is the time to start expanding into Asia.

Vladimir MARKOV, General Director of TekhnoNIKOL LLC - Building Systems, answers the magazine's questions.

Vladimir Valeryevich, before talking about business, please tell us how the name "TechnoNIKOL" was born?

The founders and owners of the company are physics by education: we all studied together at the Faculty of Physical Quantum Electronics at the Phystech. In physics, there is such a prism - "nicol", made from Icelandic spar. It splits the beam of light passing through it into two with perpendicular polarizations. That is, one beam enters, and two exit. The prism is named after its inventor, a French physicist. William Nicolas.

The construction industry is in a difficult situation today. The volume of construction is being reduced, which cannot but affect the manufacturer of building materials. There is an opinion that under these conditions, small companies should leave the market, while large ones will feel much more confident. Is it so?

Not at all. There are big companies that feel bad during the crisis, there are small companies that feel very good during the crisis. We ourselves were once a very small company. The crisis of 1998 was perceived as a push, as a window of opportunity, and they took advantage of it very fruitfully. Indeed, according to Eastern philosophy, where lie the most big problems where the biggest opportunities are.

In general, small companies are much more mobile than large ones. For us, with our 4,600 people, it will take two to three years to carry out some kind of global and serious change within the company (implement an innovation, put in a new business process, master a new technology) now! And a small company can seriously turn around in just two or three days. 20-30 people gathered, talked, decided: now we run there. They turned around and moved in the intended direction. In this regard, it is very quickly possible to mobilize financial resources, reorganize into some other niche.

It is clear that from the point of view of working with banks, it is difficult for small companies: banks look at them with distrust. But small companies are sometimes able to operate at higher interest rates than large ones, again due to greater mobility. They have a turnover rate Money faster, and they can afford higher rates, and they don't need as many resources as we do.

Therefore, I would not say that small companies will necessarily go bankrupt and die. Those with the wrong business strategy, excessive spending, or abnormal approaches to customer relations will inevitably die. But in the same way it will happen with large companies - they just have a relatively long period of dying. A huge dinosaur could already be seriously bitten by small and nimble predators before the signal reached the brain and it began to react.

How has the crisis affected your business?

You know, we didn't fall, we even grew a little. There are many factors that influenced this. For example, we are taking full advantage of the weakening ruble. Our exports are growing very well now: they have doubled to Europe. At the same time, we are discovering new export destinations - India, China. We have been working in India for only two years, but it is already going very well. good sales our roll materials.

In general, this year we expect revenue growth of 13-15%.

- How competitive are our building materials abroad?

Due to the almost two-fold depreciation of the ruble, we are very competitive abroad in terms of price. In terms of quality, we have not been inferior to foreign countries for a long time.

In some countries, such as Turkey, the government helps construction companies pay for participation in foreign exhibitions. And what kind of help do you expect from the Government of the Russian Federation?

I am convinced that everyone should mind their own business. Therefore, we do not need government assistance to pay for exhibitions or organize them. If a business is interested in penetrating a certain market, it goes and participates in the exhibition. And we do it ourselves: we go, put up stands, participate. We don't need help here, we can handle it ourselves.

Help is needed in a completely different way - in that which does not depend on us. If we want to develop exports and make our products more competitive, the Government must help entrepreneurs in this at its own level. This includes taxation, and customs and export duties, and an accelerated return of VAT, and the procedure for registering exports or offsetting the same VAT. This is how the Government should help us businessmen!

For example, some of the raw materials that we use for production in Russia, but which are not produced here, are subject to duties. And these duties should be cancelled. You should also think carefully about duties on imports of technological equipment.

Almost all of our equipment is now imported. And this import is associated with very high processing costs, both financial (duties, taxes) and paper. This is where the authorities need to help us, especially now, in a crisis. Yes, you carry what you want, for God's sake! In Russia, the backwardness of technology is the main reason for low labor productivity, so the import of any modern technology should be encouraged. The same goes for export: while you collect the entire package of documents for a VAT refund, two months pass, and before the actual payment - all six ...

By the way, about export. Quality requirements for building materials different countries are not the same, meanwhile, the development of exports requires special attention to this question. To what extent do our construction products comply with European codes, environmental requirements and other parameters?

You know, the road will be mastered by the walking one. If you methodically deal with this issue, it is within the power of any company to solve it. It’s just that if the company is small, it will take more time for it, because any certificate costs certain money. If we are like big company If we can afford to carry out certification activities in several directions and in several countries at once, then a small company cannot. Therefore, it will take much longer for her to resolve these issues.

And we began to seriously deal with the European market five years ago and achieved some success there. I can say that all Western markets are characterized by extreme conservatism. With high competition, the inertia of consumers who are accustomed to certain goods is very strong there. And the main problem is not the availability of certificates, but the lack of trust. No one knows what kind of product - your products, and everyone will be afraid to use it.

What needs to be done to overcome this distrust?

Work methodically on this market. You start selling your material, it appears at one site, at another… And people gradually realize that in terms of quality it is in no way inferior to Western analogues, and sometimes even surpasses them, that it has a good price, and the conditions and service we offer are attractive. That's when trust comes in. It can be earned only by real deliveries, painstaking work.

But the West also knows how to build barriers. Our manufacturers, who are thinking about exporting, are told: “First, you must pass certification at the Prague Institute of Building Materials Standards”, which has a representative office in Moscow. In the meantime, you have not gone through it, we will not talk with you. Is this not a bureaucratic barrier?

All my experience of studying the European certification market (and I can’t call it another word) says one thing: all certificates are ultimately invented to protect domestic markets from the external expansion of foreign manufacturers. That is, absolutely true - these are just some barriers that are built by local manufacturers and government agencies in order to protect their domestic market.

At the same time, local producers can work even without these documents, but it is impossible to import material that has not passed certification - they will not be allowed to cross the border.

Although the unification of Europe is now playing into our hands, as part of the certificates of our Lithuanian plant now has the CE marking, which means that they are valid throughout Europe.

Let's go back to Russian market. We are talking about the need to fight for quality. But sometimes only positions are included in the project, and the general contractor, in order to save money allocated to him by the developer, replaces the materials with cheaper and poor-quality ones. How to get out of this situation?

Yes, this problem really exists in Russia. There are several ways to solve it. The first way is the introduction of a new internal Russian standard for building construction. For example, the standard roofing system, which is used in 80% of our roofing solutions, is already banned in a number of European countries due to limited physical and mechanical characteristics. Increasing the durability of roofs through state standards, which are mandatory for everyone, is the most correct way, but it is the longest and most difficult. Although we still have to go through it.

The second is what we, the manufacturers, can do directly. Training, explanatory work, service, audit of the fulfillment by the contractor of the requirements laid down by us regarding how our material should be used in certain design solutions. As one of the examples: since last year we have earned a quality service. Her task is to come at least three times during the construction process to the facilities that we maintain in order to train, advise and monitor the contractor for compliance with the requirements of standards and guidelines for the use of our materials. This is something like the author's supervision on the part of the manufacturer.

And the third way. In the US, such things are resolved through the mechanism of guarantees. There, no serious customer will ever order the same roof without a real guarantee. And here they are already connected Insurance companies, professional associations that, in order to reduce their risks, develop requirements regarding what minimum characteristics materials should have, in what designs they should be used, what control should go on, etc.

At the same time, in the United States, guarantees, as a rule, are also paid: you buy materials and work separately, and you pay for the guarantee separately.

You mentioned associations. Recently, at the initiative of several companies, including yours, with the support of the Ministry of Construction, an association "National Association of Manufacturers of Building Materials, Products, Structures" was created. Why was this association needed, what tasks will it solve? And is such an extensive structure needed in the context of existing associations?

Working in various industry associations, we have come to the conclusion that most of the issues addressed in these associations are the same. The industry and industrialists have common problems. To solve these problems, it is more expedient to unite efforts. For example, issues of technical regulation - general work, development of exports, industrial clusters in the regions, R&D in production, increasing labor productivity and much more. This platform allows the experience of successful enterprises to be used for the development of the entire industry.

I believe that a strong association of all manufacturers of building materials will allow the development of this type of industry in the Russian Federation, improve the quality of the domestic market and make the country a significant player in the global industrial arena and largest exporter building materials.

Don't you think that such a big association - 400-500 large enterprises- threatens to turn into a bureaucratic body? Or will it be some kind of sectional work under the control of a single body?

In such associations, targeted work is carried out in the areas of development of the industry, key functions, the most problematic issues in the format of working groups, committees. For example, the scope of technical regulation in the industry of building materials, the development of exports of building materials or import substitution.

In each direction there are the most interested enterprises, and, as a rule, about 20 people participate in the working groups - the most active ones, who can accumulate the opinions of other manufacturers. This format allows you to make decisions more quickly and implement them without unnecessary bureaucratic restrictions.

The ever sore question construction market- qualified personnel. But among other things, this directly affects the final quality of construction. What approaches, in your opinion, can radically change the situation? How can business help here?

Business, of course, can help and influence here. But the state responsible for education, including higher education, still has more opportunities. But today, no one regulates the number of legal, accounting, financial, managerial universities and specialties. And simple construction professions, on the contrary, it is not enough, and nobody is engaged in popularization of the same technical schools and colleges.

Now it is very difficult to find a competent electronics engineer, machine tool engineer. When we faced all this, we realized that if we want to build a long-term strategy for personnel in our company, without going to the roots, to an educational institution, nothing can be done.

Therefore, we began to implement training programs in areas of profile for us. Moreover, we cooperate both with educational institutions, primarily MGSU (we even wrote a textbook with them on building systems), and we are developing our own network of training centers. Now we have 17 of them.

Many of these training centers are being opened on the basis of educational institutions in Russian regions. That is, we go to this or that institution, we negotiate with them. They allocate a site for us, we organize a training center there, where not only students of this university, but also contractors working with our materials, and managers can come for knowledge trade organizations selling our products.

QUESTION FROM A READER. Sergey from Mytishchi is interested in what kind of scientific specialists have a chance to get a job in your company?

We need chemists - specialists in the field of construction chemistry and polymer chemistry. Now we have the most promising projects related to PIR thermal insulation and mounting foam. This is all polyurethane chemistry, and our research center needs specialists in this field. They will definitely not be left without work, I guarantee.

In Voskresensk we have a strong scientific center for bituminous materials. And they need employees related to chemistry. By the way, this direction is also closely intertwined with the chemistry of polymers. After all, today most of the roofing and waterproofing materials are modified with certain polymers, the main research is carried out on the topic of optimizing these compounds, modifying them to create new solutions. And then there are single-layer PVC and TPO membranes ...

- The traditional question of the editors: how do you spend your free time, what are your hobbies?

I am interested in fishing. Fished both in Russia and abroad - in Costa Rica, Venezuela, Norway, Iceland. Almost every year I go to Krasnoyarsk region, in the area between the Lower and Podkamennaya Tunguska. Fished both on Sakhalin and Kamchatka.

I don’t like to sit with a float - most of all I like running, river fishing, with spinning.

- Thank you for the interesting interview, Vladimir Valeryevich. Good luck in all your endeavors!

Interview prepared by Alexander GUSEV, Andrey CHERNAKOV

01.03.2017 CEO at the Russian Investment Forum in Sochi, Vladimir Markov spoke about the need to urgently solve logistical and infrastructure problems in the Far East.

TechnoNIKOL Corporation began manufacturing products in the Far East in 2007. In 2016, a new plant for the production of basalt thermal insulation, investments in the construction of which amounted to about 2 billion rubles. At the Russian Investment Forum, held on February 27-28, 2017 in Sochi, Vladimir Markov, General Director of TechnoNICOL Corporation, spoke about the prospects for working within the TASED, investment plans companies and key problems of Russian exporters.

The work of the enterprise in the Far East makes it possible to provide the residents of this region with high-quality thermal insulation materials, simplify logistics, and, most importantly, increase exports of industrial products abroad. “Due to the low capacity of the domestic market, when building the enterprise, we understood that we would eventually have to export up to 50% of our products. China is of great interest to Russian exporters of building materials,” Vladimir Markov said in his speech. — The Chinese market for building materials produced by TechnoNICOL is approximately 5-6 times larger than the Russian market in terms of volume. At the same time, local manufacturers produce products using outdated equipment, which negatively affects its quality. In this connection, Russian manufacturers can successfully compete both in price and quality. But Russian exporters are interested not only in Asian markets, but also, for example, North America. We recently shipped our first batch of products to Canada.”

Placement on the basis of TASED "Khabarovsk" is of great importance for the manufacturer. The estimated amount of benefits provided should be approximately 500 million rubles. But the advantages of working on the basis of a priority development area are determined by many factors. “The most important asset is not connected with money, but with the attention from the administration of the region and the city, which makes it possible to simplify the solution of various issues and speed up the implementation of the project,” commented Vladimir Markov. — We plan to build an enterprise for the production of rolled materials in the Far East, the investment in the construction of which will amount to about 1 billion rubles. The effectiveness of the project will depend on the solution of a number of issues, including logistics and infrastructure. At the moment, the Far East is very expensive logistics, cost of transportation Russian territory may be 2-3 times the cost of transportation in China. The paradox lies in the fact that it can sometimes be more profitable for us to bring waterproofing to Shanghai by sea from Vyborg, that is, practically from the other end of our country. It is necessary to promptly solve the problem of creating additional customs crossings, primarily the crossing on Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island.

The problem of shortage of personnel, raised at the forum session, according to Vladimir Markov, is typical today not only for the Far East, but for all regions Russian Federation. This will inevitably push up the salaries of highly qualified specialists, which will have a positive impact on the level of professionalism in various industries. “Excellent professionals who are ready to engage in their own self-development will not experience problems with employment and the opportunity to earn decent money,” said Vladimir Markov.

About TechnoNIKOL Corporation

TechnoNIKOL is one of the largest international manufacturers of reliable and efficient building materials. The company offers the market the latest technology, combining world experience and developments of their own Research Centers. Cooperation with design institutes and architectural workshops allows TechnoNIKOL to respond flexibly and promptly to changes in consumer demands.

Today TechnoNIKOL is 51 production sites in 7 countries (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Italy, Great Britain), 18 training centers, 5 Research Centers, 21 representative offices in 17 countries of the world. Products are supplied to more than 80 countries. TechnoNICOL headquarters are located in Russia, Poland, Italy, China and India. The revenue of the TechnoNIKOL Production Complex for 2015 amounted to 64 billion rubles, for 2016 - 70 billion rubles.

“TechnoNICOL Corporation has been working on issues of increasing labor productivity for more than 20 years. From the very beginning of the founding of the company, we have been constantly developing, improving the skills of employees, working with contractors, and reducing costs. Since 2010, in the daily activities of our company, we began to focus on the philosophy of lean manufacturing.

Today, TechnoNIKOL Corporation plants are distinguished by some of the highest labor productivity indicators in the industry, which allowed our Technoplex enterprise in Ryazan to become the winner of the rating of the first All-Russian award "Labor Productivity: Industry Leaders - 2015" in the Building Materials Production industry.

And we are not going to stop there, consistently introducing mechanisms and developing technologies to increase labor productivity at our factories. Only in one direction "Mineral isolation" in 2015, 3606 proposals for improvements were submitted, which led to economic effect in the amount of about 200 million rubles a year. In general, labor productivity in 2015 at all plants of the Corporation increased by 9% and amounted to 13.4 million rubles. per person per year, which is more than 4 times higher than the industry average.

Separately, TechnoNIKOL pays great attention to occupational safety issues, because only when employees feel secure will they be ready to work with maximum efficiency. In 2015, the Corporation launched the “Zero Injuries” program, which provides, among other things, bonuses to the entire staff of the enterprise if there were no emergencies that led to injuries during the year.

Today at TechnoNIKOL we are increasingly paying attention to the implementation of point improvements, as well as increasing the automation of all processes and the introduction of various information systems, both at the level of individual business units and at the level of the Corporation as a whole. For example, now we are implementing a large-scale project based on Microsoft technologies to build a system internal control and audit, which will allow us to consolidate all business processes in the Corporation.”

Company information

TechnoNIKOL is one of the largest international manufacturers of reliable and efficient building materials. The company offers the market the latest technologies that combine world experience and developments of its own Research Centers. Cooperation with design institutes and architectural workshops allows TechnoNIKOL to respond flexibly and promptly to changes in consumer demands.

Today, TechnoNIKOL has more than 40 production sites in 6 countries of the world (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Italy), 17 Training Centers, 5 Research Centers, 21 representative offices in 17 countries of the world, its own sales network of 140 branches. The products are supplied to 79 countries of the world. TechnoNICOL headquarters are located in Russia, Poland, Italy, China and India.

About the Labor Productivity Award: Russian Industry Leaders - 2016

Main objective Performance awards- identify the leaders of Russian industry, show those who, thanks to comprehensive efforts, achieve unique results and develop the country's production potential, as well as offer industrial enterprises new goals and worthy examples for development. The results of the Prize will provide enterprises with unique benchmarking information on key industries and industry in Russia as a whole.

 

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