KOLEKTOR MOBILITY Upravljanje naložb d.o.o. (Slovene)

Kolektor d.o.o. Idrija Idrija, Vojkova 10, Slovenia Foundation: In 1963. Ownership: Private capital, mixed capital Annual turnover: 160 Mio DEM Employees: 860 The company"s line of business are the production and sales of commutators and slip rings. The commutator is the component of the electric commutator motor that makes possible, in combination with other components, the transfer of electrical energy from a power source to the rotor, making possible, by means of the brushes sliding along it, the commutation of the electrical current within the coil. The largest part within our sales is represented by the commutators for the automotive industry; these are followed by the commutators built-in into electrical hand tools and household appliances and machines. We are the largest European producer of commutators and the second-largest one in the world. We offer our buyers the complete engineering within the sphere of the development of commutators and the support at the introduction of the product into production. As the third company in Slovenija to get the certification, our company succeeded in obtaining the ISO 9001 certificate as early as in the year 1992 whereas the QS 9000 and VDA 6.1 certificates were obtained in October 1998. We have been awarded the Supplier-of-the-Year Award by all of our most important customers (Valeo France, Robert Bosch Germany, UTA USA, ITT Germany, Black & Decker Great Britain and others). We have also started the procedure for obtaining the certificate handling the managing of the environment, ISO 14001, (the project to be finished by the end of the year 2000). We export over 90% of our turnout, selling most of it to customers in Europe; however, the shares of sales to America and the Far East have been increasing. The company has a strong research-and-development department, employing 51 people. Of these, 30 are engaged in the production of the equipment needed by the company itself, 7 work in the R&D toolmaking workshop, and 14 work in the designing sphere itself. Further on, 9 experts are employed in the laboratory, within the frame of the quality management. The company has been investing in the development continuously, in the amount of 5% of the annual operating revenue, with the share of the investments within the revenue representing 14%. We hold 5 patents in Europe and the USA, and we have entered applications for further 2 patents. For the future, the company is planning an increase of the turnover, and most of all, the increase of the sales in the Far East countries, which is to be accompanied by the increase of the value added made per employee.