27.11.2022 Наши люди
45 years of VUJE: Leader in Slovakia and respected partner in Europe has bold plans. ENERGY IN EUROPE 2022 magazine devoted 4 pages to our company (Text, PDF)
To exist as an exclusively Slovak-owned company in full gear for forty five years is something exceptional for any economic sector of our country. VUJE joint-stock company is a leader in Slovakia´s power sector, a respected partner in a wide range of European power industries and a recognised authority with a number of international successes and innovative solutions. The company is an integral part of the power industry, research, science and nuclear safety not just in the period we are now living through. Over the past four and a half decades, VUJE, a. s. has been shaped, besides its extraordinary history, by four unchanging constants with equal footing: Stability, Expertise, Vision and Values. On the top of that there is the fifth one, which has to do with the development, namely the young top management and their drive to reach objectives.
Historically known as the Nuclear Power Plant Research Institute, which was quite unique in Czechoslovakia at that time, VUJE was established on 1 January 1977. In 1994, it was privatised as VÚJE Trnava, a.s., and in 2000, it transformed into an engineering company under the current name.
Stability
Over the 45 years of its successful operations in the past, VUJE´s business line, additionally to the research and development, expanded to design, engineering, technical, training, diagnostics and consultation services, delivered in the form of turnkey comprehensive projects, starting from initial documentation through to final solutions.
“Imagination is a necessary precondition for creativity, which drives talented, tenacious originators to make a tangible piece of work, capable of enduring ages thanks to its amazing qualities,” says Matej Korec, CEO and Member of the Board of Directors of VUJE, a.s.
Vision is a necessary prerequisite for a successful journey aimed at achieving ambitious goals. When those two factors combine in mutual synergy, there comes a company that has been operating in the international market for power engineering for forty five years without any subsidies, solely based on its own resources, as a result of, first and foremost, high quality and highly expert background of its employees.
Expertise
The company´s success can be attributed to its employees, thanks to whom it is able to accomplish the most challenging projects in the most demanding markets, and also to the company´s inner makeup free of corporate-like, impersonal relationships. Nowadays the company has about seven hundred employees, of whom two thirds have University education/academic background. However, the whole group employs as many as one thousand people.
“We are one of few private employers of such scale in Slovakia, and perhaps in the entire Eastern European region,” underlined Matej Korec, VUJE CEO. By that token they play not a negligible role, which is not just social and employment-providing, but also macroeconomic in nature. Just in the past ten years they paid EUR 250 million to the state budget in taxes and mandatory contributions.
Values
All this is accomplished by VUJE, a.s. without any holding structures or tax optimisation schemes that are difficult to keep track of. Even in the hardest of times, the company managed to keep going without any subsidies, not dismissing a one employee during the course of pandemic, whilst covering all the cost of COVID testing from its own resources, and not applying for compensations from the state.
“We are socially responsible, but do not need this to be highlighted in nation-wide advertising spots. We act out of our inner convictions and corporate culture,” notes Alexander Kšiňan, Vice-Chairman of VUJE Board of Directors. “Also thanks to our taxes and mandatory contributions the state could financially help the others. We are well aware that when it comes to the critical infrastructure, which can be quite vulnerable, it is especially necessary, even crucial, to have a reliable partner like VUJE, a.s. in the given segment in difficult times”.
Present Time
During the course of pandemic VUJE successfully and speedily addressed the need of Slovenské elektrárne, a.s. for a nuclear power plant operation simulator in Slovakia. Having it delivered from abroad would make the project considerably more costly, and also time-consuming, which would lead to the threat of decommissioning of a NPP Unit. Right now, when the question of diversification of energy carriers, especially of nuclear fuel, is at the top of agenda, VUJE has become a key partner in the respective segment, as without it would be impossible to finalise the project.
“It is good to have these extraordinary circumstances in mind, but not just in view of the future – as they are of special importance already now. A reliable and qualified partner is an invaluable asset in quantitative terms, as there is something precious hidden below the surface that cannot be expressed in terms of figures, and which translates into a better quality of life for a wide community,” reaffirms Matej Korec, VUJE CEO.
Quality and reliability
Over the past forty five years of its existence, VUJE, a.s. has indisputably made tangible achievements – whether it is the V1 Nuclear Power Plant decommissioning, projects of high voltage lines and stations in Slovakia, and in neighbouring Hungary, Norway or Slovenia, as well as cooperation on the construction of Interim Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility in Chernobyl. This means that the company does not aim to develop any abstract software, something that is simply purchased and sold, but creates physical values in support of coexistence in Europe, thus leaving a visible trace behind.
CRITICAL THINKING, CREATIVITY AND VISION
These are the virtues of our young top management and the whole team of VUJE, a.s., states CEO MATEJ KOREC.
“New era brings about new phenomena, new technologies, new demands and new industrial branches, which already today are gradually changing the way in which we function on a daily basis both at work and in private life. We strive to keep pace with new trends, and to that end it is necessary to learn and to be able to adapt to changes and apply critical thinking.
From its outset, the company has been following the credo of its founding fathers, including, in the first place, Ing. Ján Korec: the capacity to act logically will get us from point A to point B, but only the creativity, vision and resolve can get us to the place we actually want to be in.
Would it not be for such key properties and high quality expertise, our company would not get as far as it is now. Gradual generational replacement and investing into young and high quality human capital will always be a long-term task. Investment into training and education yields the highest returns. Nowadays´ world demands people to be more universal and flexible – capable of working on several different tasks in a constantly changing environment.
We strive to arrange the working conditions so as to enable our specialists to spot the interconnections between issues and get engaged fully in the future operations of the company.
In a time horizon of ten years we envisage VUJE as a company, which apart from its really wide range of standard business activities in the power sector, is fully engaged in resolving the hottest topics, such as modular reactors, microreactors, 4th generation reactors, electromobility, hydrogen, avionics technology or artificial intelligence based diagnostic tools, and the like
We neither rely on, or expect miracles, as all our work so far is a miracle in itself.”