Expansion continues
“We were faced with some unprecedented challenges in 2020. But thanks to the team rallying together, we managed to overcome the issues and were able to set firm foundations for future growth. During the very peak of the pandemic, we successfully completed several strategic manufacturing and logistics projects located in the SBA Industrial Innovation Valley. We created new positions, implemented innovations and expanded the capacities of our current companies. We also strengthened our positions in new foreign markets, we continued our existing real estate projects and started new ones. These efforts will not only enable us to catch up this year but will also help us exceed the sales volumes seen prior to the pandemic,” says Jolanta Grašienė, Vice President at SBA Group.
in 2020 the SBA Group, which operates across the real estate, furniture manufacturing and textile sectors, invested 48.1 million euro (47.2 million euro in 2019) into new projects in Lithuania and the development of existing capacities and technologies. Based on audited data, the Group’s consolidated net profits reached 11.7 million euro in 2020 and were 16.3% lower than the year before (almost 14 million euro in 2019). During the pandemic year, the group created 140 new jobs in Lithuania and the combined number of employees working for it rose to 4,460 people over the year.
According to J. Grašienė, 2021 has brought new challenges. The pandemic has disrupted supply chains around the world, the prices of key commodities are going up, while the lack of shipping containers is leading to bottlenecks, which could slow down the export of manufactured goods.
“We have identified these risks ahead of time and are able to manage them, constantly searching for suitable alternatives. However, in order to be able to return to normal economic development, we must continue to put all our efforts into combatting the underlying cause – the pandemic. The key means to do that is vaccination both in Lithuania and the world. Having said that, we are not losing our ambitions or the momentum we have built so far, with intensive strategic development planned for the next few years,” the SBA VP says.
Ambitious strategy
Earlier this year, the SBA Group presented its long-term development strategy, which outlined an investment of 300 million euro during the period of 2021-2023. Most of the investment is planned for this year and 2022, targeting all the sectors the SBA Group operates in, i.e. furniture, textile, real estate and modular multi-storey building development. It is expected that over three years the Group will create almost 800 new jobs.
The SBA furniture sector includes SBA Home, which manages Klaipėdos Baldai, Šilutės Baldai, Germanika, Visagino Linija and Mebelain. It also manages a fully-automated furniture component factory Laminn, opened last year in the SBA Industrial Innovation Valley, as well as the logistics centre Innovo Logistika. SBA also owns Kauno Baldai, one of the largest soft furniture manufacturers in the Baltic region. Kauno Baldai embarked on a large capacity development project earlier this year.
In the real estate sector, SBA Urban manages the Green Hall business valley it developed in Vilnius. The company is developing a new residential area in Kaunas (Nemunaičiai), where it also manages the BLC business centre. In the near future SBA Urban will take on the development of a high-tech campus in Riga, while another company within the SBA Group – investment management firm Capitalica Asset Management – manages the Kaunas-based business centre Kauno Dokas and 135 in Vilnius. In addition, Capitalica is developing a modern office complex Verde in Riga, while also planning to invest in various green logistics projects through a newly established fund.
The SBA textile sector is comprised of Utenos Trikotažas, Šatrija and Mrija. Utenos Trikotažas is the only company in the world to meet the Greenpeace environmental conservation standards. SBA Group also includes a robotics and automation solution company Robotex, as well as SBA Modular, which plans to develop production of modular and sustainable multi-storey buildings.
