Growing Market Presence in the Czech Republic

With the acquisition of KVK Holdings, Sika has been able to grow its market presence in the Czech Republic and has the potential to become the market leader in bituminous waterproofing in the country.

KVK Holdings (“KVK”) was an independent Czech Republic based manufacturer of dry mortars, bituminous products and polystyrene thermal insulation products. The Group generated net sales of about CHF 42 million in 2016.

KVK is the market leader in bituminous membranes in the Czech Republic and has a strong position in both the waterproofing market segment and in the roofing market. Additionally, KVK also had some market share in the volume mortar market where Sika was previously not present.

By acquiring and integrating the KVK company in 2017, Sika gained accessto a complementary product portfolio as well as an extended geographical footprint in the Czech Republic. This allowed Sika to significantly increase its product offering and improve the market share across four Target Markets. Thanks to the combined business, Sika is expected to become the clear market leader in bituminous waterproofing in the Czech Republic, and the strong number two in the roofing market. In addition, Sika Czech will improve its presence with all major builders’ merchants. Andrej Sisolak, General Manager Sika Czech, points out, “we were able to massively increase the market share in distribution and now have a unique portfolio to serve our customers!

After the closing of the KVK acquisition, one of the first tasks was to understand the company structure, the operations, and any other business-related topics. The local teams immediately started to visit common customers to ensure business continuity which is crucial for a successful integration.

After completing the first analysis, a business continuity plan for the business integration was put in place, together with selected priorities for the next five years.

For the first year the approach was to run the business “as usual”. Additionally, the focus was put on the integration of the dry mortar activities where the largest potential for cross-selling was identified. An integral part of the plan was to improve the operational efficiency: focusing on customers and sales helped to retain all key customers.

In 2019, the KVK mortars sales team was integrated into the Sika team. Thanks to the positive attitude of all team members, Sika was able to increase the market share in the distribution channel and cross-selling activities. Sika now has a unique portfolio of construction materials in the Czech market, with a broad offering that is attractive to distributors, craftsmen, investors, and large construction companies.

During the ongoing year, the focus has been on improving the efficiency of all production facilities. The key task has been to utilize the capacity of the mortar factories. At the same time KVK product portfolios are being integrated into the Sika brand in order to profit and build up Sika as a strong brand with full system solutions.