Businesses operate within a strategically well-established plan

Conversation with the Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Monbat Atanas Bobokov in the Business MeetingIt is difficult to successfully develop a state-owned enterprise that is subsequently privatized. To accomplish this, we need the expertise of the best specialists in the battery industry in Bulgaria and the capabilities of the Institute of Electrochemistry and Energy Systems at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.“IEEE is world-famous and contributes a lot to the development of technology and production,” says Atanas Bobokov.Once a manufacturer with annual production of just 200,000 batteries, Monbat is now a leading European batteries’ producer operating in two major business segments – lead-acid batteries and lithium-ion cells and high-power systems. Today, as a privatized company, Monbat manufactures more in just one month than it used to do in a year. Success in an unknown industry depends on attracting technologists and highly-profiled specialists. It also hinges on forging an appropriate strategy for specific trends in particular business areas.“Sometimes we make mistakes in managing a developing company. But when the plan is strategically well thought through, and well executed, then all our subsequent moves are logical because they flow from the plan,” says Bobokov. Such an example is the development of recycling capacities in Romania, Serbia and Italy. This forms part of the vertically integrated lead-acid batteries business model that reduces the risk to the group from commodity price volatility and allows for higher operating margins to be achieved in comparison with competitors. “We have been investing in recycling from the beginning; we have developed factories abroad and all this has helped us to be very competitive and to take a significant share of the market in Europe.”“Sometimes we are fortunate to be in the right place at the right time as happened with the deal to acquire the lithium-ion business in Germany. To date, we value the investment as very good and strategically important,” said Bobokov, highlighting it as a new business segment for Monbat, which is expanding its market presence in LFP-based cellular systems based solutions. These, which are widely used for sectors requiring high power, high reliability and very high levels of safety, for example in aerospace and defense applications, maritime and public transport.Regarding the acquisition of new companies, Monbat is developing new opportunities in Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, South Africa, Uzbekistan and other countries. These are interesting markets, with increasing investments. Uzbekistan is expected to start privatizing state-owned enterprises and opening up foreign investment, Monbat’s Chief Executive Officer said.The whole conversation with Atanas Bobokov you can hear on:https://www.bloombergtv.bg/biznes-sreshta/2018-12-12/uspehat-na-balgarskite-investitsii-v-litievi-kompanii-v-germaniya#