History of the company

History of the Zenit company

The history of the company began many years ago, in 1968, with the establishment of a foreign trade company with the name of Zenit. A complex privatisation process in the period after 1989 resulted in the registration in 1991 of a new company Zenit, spol. s r.o. with the right to use the Zenit trademark, including its traditional logo symbolising a peak or the way to the top or the constant effort to achieve that.

From the very beginning the primary strategic goal of the company was to create an organisation that would become a stable and reliable partner of major international companies in the distribution, marketing and servicing of their products. This objective was achieved rapidly and Zenit became the partner of such companies as General Electric, Rohde Schwarz, Pirelli, Roehm, Charmilles Technologies, Mikron, Neckermann, Arburg, Universal, Wertenbach and others. From the outset Zenit placed an emphasis on such basic values as reliability and transparency and the high value that the company itself brought to the supply chain through services that included technical support, marketing, training, servicing, transportation, storage and formatting. By emphasising these aspects the company, from the outset, differed from many of its competitors that were operating on a commission basis and it thereby gained the confidence of many major companies. It then cooperated over many years with them, while with some of them, such as Bayer Sheet Europe or Evonik Degussa it still works today. Based on its proactive business philosophy, focusing on searching for market opportunities, the number of its strong and long-term partnerships increased and the scope of its activities, including its own production, also expanded too.

Thereby Zenit has now become a stable company with a wide range of activities. The activities and disciplines with which Zenit deals can be divided into two areas – one civilian and the other special; these activities, in terms of their organisation, are divided into separate divisions or SBUs (Strategic Business Units). The main programme of the "Special" Division is the comprehensive securing of supplies of goods, especially spare parts, and of the warranty and post-warranty servicing of helicopters, in particular the W-3A Sokol, which is related to long-term cooperation with both foreign and domestic partners. Polish-made W-3A Sokol helicopters are deployed for demanding tasks undertaken by the air rescue services and for dealing with the consequences of natural disasters and they have saved thousands of lives.

The area to which Zenit pays the most attention, however, and the constant development of which represents the company’s primary strategic goal is the Civilian arena.

This comprises the following divisions:

Until the end of 2010 the following divisions also constituted a part of Zenit:

Makrotherm Skylights (the manufacture and sale of all-aluminium skylights with polycarbonate glazing) and
Industrial flooring and waterproofing systems (the manufacture, sale and installation of industrial flooring and waterproofing systems).

Within the fulfilment of the strategic plan as of the 1st January 2011 a change took place in the organisational structure of Zenit through the process of the sale of a part of the company. From the above date parts of Zenit, spol. s r.o., namely the Makrotherm^® Skylights Division and the Waterproofing Systems and Industrial Flooring Division came into the possession of a new owner, the Betvar, a.s. company. Zenit, spol. s r.o., however, will continue to direct its efforts and its resources to the development of alternative activities, especially in the area of trading in plastic materials for the advertising and the construction industries and its trading in CNC machines, in addition to the implementation of new projects, in both the Czech and the Slovak Republics.

In order to be able to continuously improve its services and to support the development of its civilian divisions, Zenit invested in the construction of a modern complex in Prague - Malešice that provides efficacious facilities for production, storage and value-added services, together with a pleasant working environment for the staff and a comfortable environment for customers. In addition, currently in preparation is a project for the reconstruction of these premises in order to further increase the degree of comfort for the customers and the partners of our company. For the same reason, we are also working on improving the purchasing procedures through the use of modern methods of ordering and making payments using the Internet.

Zenit made additional investments by building a regional centre in Červená Lhota near Olomouc specifically for the distribution of plastics and by building a training and service centre in Blansko for the sale and servicing of CNC machines. A large investment was also made for the construction of a storage and production and administrative complex in the Slovak Republic, where Zenit operates under the umbrella of its 100% subsidiary Zenit SK.

Zenit has introduced a quality management system in accordance with ISO 9001 that was certified by the Český lodní a průmyslový registr s.r.o. certification body. This system, which documents all of the company’s processes, is audited regularly and it serves as an additional source of stability and of the quality improvement of processes. Of course Zenit is also regularly audited in regard to its accounting, on the correctness and transparency of which the owners of the company place a strong emphasis.

With its cca. 40 employees and annual sales of about CZK 400 million Zenit s.r.o. belongs amongst companies of medium size. We, however, regard ourselves as a company with a large responsibility not only towards our customers and our employees, but also to the wider society and the environment. We participate in the collecting and recycling of packaging waste; we sort our waste and favour environmentally friendly technologies. Each year we spend considerable resources on supporting projects that help the sick or otherwise disadvantaged people and for supporting sporting and cultural events. We are grateful for each smile that we see on the faces of our customers, our partners and our employees. Come to see for yourself, we are looking forward to your visit.