German

KONUS KONEX

Mestni trg 18
SI-3210 Slovenske Konjice
Slovenia

Tel. + 386 63 753 812
Fax + 386 63 754 368

E-mail

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In the heart of Slovenia
The Konus Konex company has its principal office in Slovenske Konjice, between the two regional centres of Celje and Maribor in the north-east of Slovenia, in the heart of Slovenia yet at the same time close to the border with Austria.

The Konus Konex company arose from the well-known Konus industrial system founded in Slovenske Konjice as far back as 1894, more than one hundred years ago. Konus has developed from a small tannery into a modern, commercially successful company. Konus was a well-known trade mark in the markets of former Yugoslavia. After the collapse of Yugoslavia, several small, vital companies were established from Konus. Konus Konex continues the Konus tradition dating back over a hundred years, and wishes to consolidate the reputation of the Konus trade mark, both at home and abroad.

Rapid growth and foreign firms

The rapid growth of the company, which is a private venture linking Slovene and Italian capital from the well-known Chiorino company, is reflected in an appropriate commercial orientation. We opted for a partnership with a foreign firm because of the specialisation of product ranges and market segmentation. Today the company employs 170 people, and annual turnover amounts to 21 million German marks. As much as 80% of output is exported to the European Union, overseas countries (particularly the USA), the countries of the former Yugoslavia, and the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Director Savo Grilj, B.Sc., has been working for Konus for 27 years, actively participating throughout in the development and growth of the Konus company, as well as in the establishment of the new Konus Konex company.

In 1996, Konus Konex, which remained consistently profitable regardless of the difficulties, was privatised and is now in the hands of Slovene and foreign owners. The decision to opt for a foreign partner was taken due to the segmentation and specialisation of product ranges, and the division of sales markets into drive and transport elements.

The idea of expanding our product range was always present in our business policy. Consequently, we decided to introduce spatial, industrial and wet filtration into our sales-production range, leading to the purchase of the Kofil company in the second half of 1996.

All the major European filtration manufacturers include non-woven materials in their sales-production range. Given this and the increasing competition in the sector, we decided to buy production facilities for non-woven materials. Thus in the first half of 1997 we bought out the Netex company.

Expanding sales markets has always been a priority task in expanding product ranges. For this reason in 1997 we bought the Konskor joint-stock company based in St Petersburg in the Russian Federation.

In the same year, we established the Konus-Lotex company in Loznica, Yugoslavia. We founded the Konus-Ecol company in Bihac, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Finally, we established Konus-Chiorino, based in Pecs in Hungary. In addition to our majority-owned companies, we also have representative offices in Macedonia, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia. We have plans to found companies in Ukraine, Moldova, and Uzbekistan. Implementing such a business plan would signify that we had developed our sales-production network for our products in the markets of eastern Europe.

Broad range of specialised products

Konus Konex appears in all markets as a high-quality manufacturer of transport and power transmission elements, non-woven materials and filters. The sales-production range is mostly intended for industry and to a lesser extent general consumers.

Ranges:

• production of non-woven materials from synthetic fibres:

SILON, synthetic leather for the footwear industry, accessories, and conveyor belts, KOFIL, production of filter materials, and ready-made filters for industrial dust removal, and cleaning of air and fluids, KONFLIN, filler for the clothes, upholstery and automobile industries,

Mr. Savo Grilj, Director

TIPI TOP, manufacture of all types of ready-made cleaning cloth, CONSUMER RANGE, filters for kitchen extractor fans, filter masks and various leather products

• Production of conveyor belts and power transmission belts:

Conveyor belts made of PVC, polyurethane, rubber, Teflon, non-woven SILON materials and rail belts, Flat belts, toothed and wedge-shaped belts, variators, Spare parts for the textile industry

Quality and Development

Konus Konex is a company developing with a view to the third millennium. Quality, knowledge and development work, meeting delivery deadlines, exceptional attention towards every customer and carefully considered expansion of our manufacturing-trading companies and representative offices around the world - these are the distinguishing features of the company’s operations. Working with our respected Italian partners, the Chiorino company, which part owns Konus Konex, allows us to capture new markets. Konus Konex plans to develop new products and an even more intensive expansion of markets for our environmental range (filtration), drive elements and transport. In the year 1998, the company obtained the ISO 9001 certificate. We have begun preparations for the ISO 14001 environmental standard, which will mark our contribution to a cleaner living environment. We plan new investment to modernise production and to launch new ranges.