"Last year was the best in the group's history," says Jiří Šťastný, founder of Hit Office Group, one of the most important paper groups in the Czech Republic. He founded the company right after the revolution with his wife Jana and son Martin, and since then their business has grown from a small-town self-service to a business in excess of half a billion crowns.
Today, the production of food packaging is a key part of it, and the Teplice Hit Office is currently the third largest European manufacturer in its field. But paradoxically, it was a pandemic and the associated boom in delivery services, which made the owner of the films happy to smile at last year's results.
"While office and archiving needs have been stagnant for a few years due to digitalisation, which has been accelerated by the pandemic, the demand for take-away and home delivery food packaging has erupted during the covid. We were not afraid to invest, and even though we did not have any binding orders from our customers, we bought new technologies and added new products to our portfolio, ”says Šťastný.
And this bet worked perfectly. "As a result, the turnover of the company's paper division increased by about one hundred million crowns last year, ie by more than a third," adds the owner.
Jiří Šťastný follows the rules that he wishes happiness to those who are ready. Thirty years ago, he met stacks of paper only as a ministerial official. But then came a little privatization and the opportunity to start a business.
In 1991, the Šťastný family in Poděbrady auctioned off a self-service grocery store and set out to gather their first business experience. "We had to borrow 170,000 crowns to deposit the auction security, as well as three million for business and other money to buy goods," recalls the head of the Hit Office Group at the start of the family business.
Both spouses left their jobs and began to take care of the business. Even then, under the acronym HIT, ie "Happy international trade", which indicated that the new entrepreneur did not intend to stay grounded. "From the beginning, I was constantly looking for opportunities," says Šťastný.
Food sales first expanded to include electric convectors, which were of interest thanks to contributions to ecological heating. Later, as a trained locksmith, he began assembling them in the back of the supermarket.
When the owner of a Prague wholesaler told him that he would not remove the convectors, but if he offered him bags for vacuum cleaners, he would be interested, he decided to switch to another assortment that was missing on the market. He was not deterred by a lawsuit from the existing domestic monopoly manufacturer - on the contrary, he bought the first die-cutting machine for bag fronts.
In search of another assortment on which they could expand production, Šťastný agreed on subcontracting with the paper furniture manufacturer Rollpa. Which meant more investment in technology.
At that time, the self-service building was already tight for the growing company, so the company bought the former Kovopodnik premises for the repair of compressors, where the paper machines were moved, from a bank loan. However, the furniture boards gradually pushed out the more desirable office and advertising needs.
"Thanks to such a wide range, we were able to withstand a price war with many times more and technologically more advanced competition," recalls the entrepreneur. The competition ended in 1999 with the event that the Teplice-based office supplies manufacturer, who had previously tried to push them out of the market by dumping prices, eventually bought HIT. Šťastný agreed on cooperation with another competitor, Slunap from Brno, and bought 52 percent of the company.
With acquisitions, the Hit Office product portfolio also expanded. The advertising and office items were joined by luxury coated cardboard, which the group produces in the Slunap factory in Chrást near Brno, then cake and pizza boxes or coasters, which were produced in Bělá pod Bezdězem.
Last year, the Hit Office Group completed an investment worth around one hundred million crowns and moved all production for the food industry to a new site in Proboštov near Teplice.
"We managed to complete the new warehouse, complete the reconstruction of the existing one and we also bought new production technologies," adds Šťastný's investment, adding that there is not enough space in the area of forty thousand square meters for the development and possible completion of additional warehouses.
In any case, Šťastný sees the potential for the company's growth mainly in all kinds of food packaging. And in ecology. "Three years ago, we were one of the first manufacturers to offer standard plastic-free dispersion barrier cups on the market today," boasts a product developed with the Finnish company Kotka. And on a similar basis, Hit Office introduces additional plastic-free packaging that is fully recyclable and compostable.
"Most Czech customers so far prefer the price to the quality and method of use, but we are also gradually increasing the number of companies whose ecology is at heart. And the situation is already changing in the key European market in neighboring Germany, "says Šťastný.
Innovation is a key issue at Hit Office. Jiří Šťastný's son Martin, who holds a half share in the company and has been managing the Teplice division since 2006, has
