HeUJw

hoW the SoN roSe iN the rettiGfAMilY: tomAS von rettigthis business successfully. You could say thatwe operated like a typical traditional familyowned company that has slowly discoveredits potential. however, since we moved intothe 21st century, a lot has changed.”“ Stress can be usefulto keep things in focus,to keep performanceas sharp as possible”growing business. We entered this industryin 2002 to balance the effects of the differentcycles of our existing businesses, but alsobecause we are convinced that we can growthis industry successfully. Shipping on theother hand, finds itself globally in a difficultphase. Not only were the last four yearsdifficult, but we believe that this will alsobe the case in the coming years. this is achallenging market, and one in which, withBore, we have a long history. their ships sailall over europe, from our Northern seas up tothe Biscayan and Mediterranean seas. As Boreis a charter business, we own the ships, man,maintain, and operate them. this is a hugeadvantage to our customers – like Airbus –who don’t have to invest in ships, but cansimply charter them.’openess“What should change? in general i wouldsay that we have to move forward. A processwe began as a company at the beginning ofthis century when we also started to focusmore and more on the heating industry.We changed our vision and searched foropportunities and businesses that suited usbetter. our interest in the heating industrystarted in 1970 when we bought Purmo, anew and really interesting business withnew perspectives; which was a good reasonfor us to invest heavily in this activity. rightacross the 80s, 90s, as at the start of thiscentury, we managed to expand and grow“We have made choices and have a clearstrategy how to strengthen and growthe different business areas we’re in. Astronger portfolio, a more open approachto stakeholders and the media, all of thisis showing positive results for us,” explainstomas. “‘of course we can’t ignore thefinancial crisis that europe is still dealingwith today. luckily, in finland the situationis slightly different, as our big financial crisispeaked in the early 90s. finland learnt fromthat period and changed. We now have oneof the best debt ratios of europe. Perhaps weare a bit too prudent sometimes, but i thinkwe are doing well here up North. in addition,i think that we somehow profit from thefact that we are the only Nordic country tohave joined the euro. We understand theimportance of having a strong and healthyeconomy, and we are a down to earth people,hardworking and proud. But we are alsohumble, polite and respectful. i am convincedthat this has helped us at rettig to grow ourdifferent activities in the last decades.”a great team“What i perhaps should underline here, is thatthere is absolutely no reason to think that myfather will step down in the coming decade.As long as we don’t step on each other’s toes– and so far we haven’t– i think we make agreat team,”’ says tomas. “What i want to do,is to grow our businesses successfully in thecoming years. We have an ambitious strategywith realistic but also challenging targets.We know what our goals are and what isexpected from us in the coming years. Despitethe fact that the world economy is still fragile,i am convinced that we will succeed.” | 6869 |