Direction Dubai! Czech and Slovak manufacturer join forces in smart lights

Vladimir Levarsky has been one of Slovakia’s most prominent entrepreneurs for years. A former maths teacher at grammar school, he built OMS in Senica, which years ago had billion-dollar sales, set trends and supplied lights to department stores, hospitals and offices around the world. The founder himself went on to win the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award. He then sold the company, but returned to it last year – and is once again brimming with ideas and energy. He is driven by an extraordinary desire to return to his original position. The strategic partnership with the Czech manufacturer ELKO EP will help him to do so.

How much is the market changing?
Tremendously. You could say that European production is under enormous pressure. It is most evident in the automotive sector, because that is where our economy has traditionally been based. But a similar situation is happening across segments. I read a few days ago that the respected Norwegian company Q-Light, for example, has gone out of business, and there will certainly be others to follow. Therefore, we need to transform quickly, change business models and step into innovative products with more added value. So that we are not just dependent on price wars with Asian competitors.

Is that also why you approached the Czech ELKO EP?
Every difficult situation is also a challenge. If we are under such significant pressure, you have to start doing things differently. That’s why we came to Jiří Konečný (owner and founder of ELKO EP), saying that we would like to integrate ELKO EP controls directly into our lights. With that, we would then not have to explain to customers that they can buy lighting on one side and control on the other, but they would get the whole set that is already set up and ready.

What could be such a classic example?
Imagine, for example, a school classroom with eleven lights. Nine main lights and two for the blackboard lighting. By having smart elements in them, they will be able to easily adjust to the set modes or automatically according to the light level in the room according to the time of day. Likewise, we will be able to change the angles of the light, to define different colour scenes. And along with that, we can also solve the savings on operation. Of course, the bigger such a project is, the more efficient our collaboration can be.

But smart lights have been here before…
You’re right. More than ten years ago, when I was running the company, we published a book called Light Control – and in it we set ourselves the goal of being able to control lights. But because I wasn’t in the company, the strategy didn’t end up being implemented. Now it’s too late to “re-engineer the wheel” because the rules have changed. So why not team up with a strong player who is respected in this particular field.

In the past your company used to be the number one lighting company in Central and Eastern Europe, but recently you have returned to a “different” company, much smaller. What are its ambitions?
We would like to return to that position again. We may not have the market share at the moment, but we still have exceptional know-how and, above all, dozens of long-standing contacts who have declared their willingness to work with us again.

What are the key goals?
We are transforming the company and its business model. We are convinced that we will be one of those who will transform the entire market, because we see that conditions, competition and customer requirements are changing.

What would you consider a success story?
We would definitely like to have all the modules and references from all industries ready by the end of the year. We are interested in schools, sports halls, industrial enterprises, shops and retail establishments. At the same time, we would like to have a turnover in the order of millions in our cooperation with ELKO EP.

What are the first steps?
Now we are going to travel together to Dubai. We will join ELKO EP’s stand at the Light & Intelligent Building Middle East exhibition, which focuses on the electrical industry. We are sure to meet many of our old friends here – and at the same time try to attract new partners. And then further afield, we will activate all our contacts – from Morocco to Australia or Singapore. That’s where ELKO EP can really help us a lot.