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Businesses are not lagging behind households. They are preparing for worse times and turning over every penny. However, they have not yet affected the employees.
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So what are they saving on? The editors of SZ Byznys asked company managers from various fields. While somewhere they remind employees with parental ferocity that they should turn off and turn off the machines, elsewhere they despair that there is nowhere else to take it.
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We will bring stories that are also meant to inspire in the coming weeks in the summer series with the subtitle “Pennies make plates”. We will look in detail at what is being saved in gastronomy, transport, production, services or trade.
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The common denominator is the uncertainty that entrepreneurs associate with what will happen in the fall and next year. Three reasons have come together – companies are cutting back because covid has drained them financially. Because their costs are rising significantly, especially for energy, materials and employees. And they are beginning to count on the fact that it will be worse due to tight household budgets.
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“The price pressure is enormous, electronics are selling at the lowest price ever. At the same time, customer interest has cooled significantly,” says Roman Kocourek, director of the Electro World network, which manages forty stores of the Electro World and K+B Expert brands. He found the biggest scope for savings in energy.
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“At each store, we light in several modes so that the lighting replicates the peak of traffic. When there are a lot of customers, we shine at full brightness, and when there are fewer people in the store, the lighting is dimmed. You would be surprised, but we save millions of crowns a year on lighting,” he offers his recipe for how to withstand market turbulence. Other entrepreneurs are also looking for savings in the full details.
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Kitchen, electricity guzzler
For example, Zdeněk Babulík, the owner of three restaurants from Zlín, in April handed out a manual on how to save electricity to people at work, according to which cooks, who operate energy-intensive appliances, must follow them on their shifts.
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“Staff were ordered to turn off the electricity. It is essential for us to conserve resources now. When it’s not theirs, it shines everywhere. They have to turn off the coffee machines at night, because it’s a guzzler of electricity,” he described.
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They also have to save money when operating convection ovens and salamander grills, i.e. devices for heat treatment of food that are powered by 400 volts. “When the cook finishes the food, he must immediately turn off the device,” he said.
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However, restaurants also save by purchasing material in larger volumes or by modifying menus, from which some more expensive dishes or ingredients disappear.
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According to Luboš Kastner, who manages several restaurants and defends the interests of gastronomes in the uniform of the professional guild of the Association of Small and Medium-Sized Entrepreneurs, gastronomes must “brutally save on everything and raise prices as little as possible.” “Prices will rise and guests will not let up in their demands. They will therefore spend more of their money where the service meets expectations and a good customer experience.”
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“The key to saving the Czech gastroenterology largely depends on the price of beer. But it’s not enough just to make it more expensive,” he alludes to the fact that the one who offers first-class quality will have a better position in the future.
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Investments in alternative energy are a frequent topic in production plants. A number of companies are considering how to make secondary use of energy from production and are planning to install photovoltaics on roofs. So it’s not just about cuts. Investments in automation and robotics are important for manufacturers, but also for some traders.
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Savings can also be made by changing the strategy of purchasing departments. “For example, we save by buying in larger quantities. We used to tender paper for a month in advance, but now for a year. This will save about ten percent of the cost of its acquisition,” gives the example of Pavel Koutný, head of the Koutný textile company in Prostejov.
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Expensive fuel affects the economy of carriers. But they cannot drive less when it is their main source of livelihood. “We are trying to correct the costs, but it is very difficult. We can save on some internal process optimization,” says Josef Melzer, CEO of the logistics company M+L Logistik.
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According to him, it is not possible to save on drivers, spare parts purchases and renewal of the fleet. So where does he draw the line?
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“The first thing that falls is money for advertising. On the other hand, it’s a detail, because we don’t massively use advertising like, for example, retail,” he confided.
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