Messer Tehnogas – one good, successful story from Serbia

Ernst Bode (Photo: lična arhiva)

Messer, a large multinational company, the planetarian brand in field of technical and medical gases, has been registering excellent business results in Serbia over the past 11 years. This company had 45m EUR worth of incomes in 2007 and it has, so far, invested 132m EUR in Sebia. Mr Ernst Bode, the CEO of the company and the President of German Business Association (DWB) in Serbia has kindly accepted to reveal many details of the realized and future plans and ambitions of this large company for the readers of eKapija.

Here are some of them.

eKapija : Mr Bode, would you please present us your company Messer Tehnogas in short

- Company Tehnogas was founded in 1929 after the first oxygen production unit was built in Rakovica in Belgrade. In 1997, Messer group, the company that deals with technical and medical gases for over 100 years, became the majority owner of Messer Tehnogas.

Messer Tehnogas is, without doubt, leading company for production of industrial, medical and special gases, as well as accompanying industrial and medical equipment, on the territory of Serbia. Over 4,000 buyers in the country and abroad are supplied with oxygen, nitrogen, argon, carbon-dioxide, hydrogen, helium, inert gases for welding works, special gases, gases for medical use and broad range of gas mixtures produced in Messer Tehnogas.

The range of gases is broad, as well as the range of industries that use gases and the advantages of specific applications and know-how of Messer's employees. Some of the fields in which gases are used are: drinking water treatment, food freezing and canning, fish ponds, carbonation of drinks and packing of non-carbonated liquids, greenhouses, recycling of waste material, steel and metal industry, chemical industry, pharmaceutical industry, automobile and electric industry, medicine, etc.

eKapija : How long do you operate in the market of Serbia ?

- Tehnogas exists since 1929, while Messer was founded in 1898, so that, altogether, they have nearly 190-year experience. Merger of these two strong companies gave birth to Messer Tehnogas in 1997.

(Air decomposition unit in Smederevo)

eKapija : How much have you invested in Serbia so far ?

- Total investments in Serbia amount to about 132m EUR.

eKapija : How many of our fellow citizens work in Messer Tehnogas today ?

- At the end of year 2007, the "family" of Messer Tehnogas in Serbia consisted of 325 people.

eKapija : What are your business results ?

- Total incoms from sales in 2007 amounted to about 45m EUR. The proof of good operations of Messer Tehnogas in Serbia is the award for the most favorite brand at the Brand Fair, as well as three awards for the best foreign brand in Serbia in 2005, 2006 and 2007 within campaign "The Best Trademarks of Serbia“, which is organized by daily newspaper Pregled, Ministry of Trade and Services and Chamber of Commerce of Serbia.

eKapija : Where do you have your units in Serbia ?

- Messer Tehnogas owns two up-to-date air decomposition units, the units for production of oxygen, carbon-dioxide, nitrogen-suboxide and several nitrogen generators, units for production of acetylene and bottling unit for technical and medical gases in Belgrade, Smederevo, Novi Sad, Pančevo, Niš, Kraljevo and Odžaci.

The main units are in Smederevo and Niš and they represent important production sources for the region of Balkan. In addition to production units, Stock Company Messer Tehnogas has over 60 retail centers all around Serbia, engineering service, servicing and installation teams and numerous cisterns and trucks for transportation of gases, which guarantees 24-hour service and availability.

In addition to production and sale of gases, Messer Tehnogas' product portfolio also includes Castolin equipment and the equipment for cutting and welding works and, at the same time, it also provides services in that field.

eKapija : What does company currently work on ?

- One of very important projects we have started is training of future welding experts. In association with the Ministry of Education and Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, the new department has been opened at this faculty - "Welding and Welded Structures".

Messer Tehnogas grants scholarships to the best students at this department, it equipped the laboratory for welding and metalization, while students have practical work in the company. In addition, Messer Tehnogas signed the sponsorship contracts with five technical schools in Serbia that introduced the classes for the title of "Mechanical Reparature Technician" and it equipped laboratories in these schools with the necessary equipment.

(Bottling unit in Rakovica)

eKapija : Does company cherish socially responsible operations? What are the humanitarian and other non-commercial campaigns that the company took part in ?

- Messer Tehnogas participates in numerous humanitarian campaigns, such as equipping of hospitals, financing of travels of Serbian physicians to congresses, assisting organizations that take care of children, etc.

eKapija : Which are the sectors that your significant buyers belong to ?

- Majority of our buyers are from petrochemical industry, base metal processing, metal-processing industry, metallurgy, food industry, medicine. Our most significant and largest buyer is, most certainly, U.S. Steel Srbija.

eKapija : What is your prognosis of economic trends in the country?

- Business climate in Serbia is improving, especially after stabilization of political situation in Serbia, adoption of the Law on ratification of the Stabilization and Association Agreement with EU and the Law on energy agreement with Russia, as well as the Government's announcement concerning the changes in legislation. Foreign investors find Serbia interesting and that interest has the tendency of constant growth.