Sustainability and innovation
According to president Arūnas Martinkevičius, as SBA marks its thirtieth anniversary, SBA will proceed with the most rapid and most ambitious expansion in the group’s history over the next few years. The new strategy sets three main leadership goals: firstly, to become innovation leaders and experts in their industries and have the most patents. Secondly, to be the most desirable destination for progressive and proactive individuals when choosing their career path, and thirdly to be the most socially responsible of all the major business groups in Lithuania.
“Thinking about meaningless business growth is not our way. We will focus all our energy towards where our innovative solutions can gift the world a new outlook in the workplace, employee health, revolutionary manufacturing advancements, the emergence of high-tech towns, which are all things that every country in the world would seek. For the conservative construction sector, which is lacking in innovation, we will propose a clean, modular building technology. We are no less capable than the major creators and when our vision is realised, and we will be able to celebrate our achievements in creating a healthier, more meaningful and friendlier world,” A. Martinkevičius says.
Today when working with a new business idea or new product, the first goal to be set is for these solutions to contribute to marked change, to be innovative, competitive, and able to achieve large scales on the global market starting with unique-concept real estate projects, sustainable and environmentally friendly modular buildings, innovative textile products, and finishing with robotics solutions and manufacturing patents.
It is planned for the investment by SBA and its companies over the period of 2021-2023 to reach 300 million euros, with most of it being invested this year and during 2022, and this will grow across all sectors where SBA operates – furniture, textiles, real estate, and modular multi-storey development. During 2021 alone, SBA companies will create almost 500 new jobs, and over three years this number is projected to reach 800. In its strategy, measures are outlined to allow the company to increase its revenue by double-digit figures each year, and over the coming three years the group’s consolidated sales should rise by more than one and a half times.
“All SBA business directions have new and ambitious strategies. We have in mind not only organic expansion or greenfield investment in manufacturing companies but also potential purchases, which We are constantly on the lookout for, and we will evaluate every investment based on strict criteria of sustainability, the creation of higher added value and competitiveness,” the SBA president states.
Management changes
The business strategy implementation will be accompanied by changes in management, and over the past few years, SBA has distilled its businesses and their management, expanding strategic level competences. Over the past few years, the SBA board saw the joining of three experienced independent members, and soon, the board is to be supplemented by new professionals with experience in leading major international businesses.
“We will further enable and reinforce the management of individual business units. Global expansion demands a global outlook, and so we will continue to attract professionals with experience in the international markets. We wish to learn and grow at all levels of the organisation. Concurrently, we will increase investment into the training and knowledge of our existing staff members, as this is a priority,” A. Martinkevičius says.
Just as before, SBA will dedicate significant attention to social responsibility, and the group and its companies will initiate and contribute to various social responsibility initiatives at both community and state levels.
The SBA Group is one of Lithuania’s largest, operating in the real estate, textile and furniture manufacturing sectors employing over 5,000 staff members. The SBA furniture manufacturing sector includes SBA Baldų Kompanija, which manages Klaipėdos Baldai, Šilutės Baldai, Germanika, Visagino Linija and Mebelain as well as the furniture prefab factory Laminn and Logistics centre Innovo Logistika operating from the SBA Industrial Innovation Park. SBA also manages Kauno Baldai, one of the Baltic region’s largest soft furniture manufacturers.
In the real estate sector, SBA owns the company Urban Inventors, which is developing the business valley Green Hall in Vilnius and the BLC business centre in Kaunas. It will also be developing a high tech town in Riga. SBA also owns the investment management company Capitalica Asset Management, which manages the Kaunas-based business centre Kauno Dokas, Vilnius’ 135 and is developing the modern office complex Verde in Riga, as well as having established a green logistics foundation.
The SBA textile sector is comprised of Utenos Trikotažas alongside the companies Šatrija and Mrija. Utenos Trikotažas is the only in the world to comply with Greenpeace environmental conservation standards.
SBA also manages the robotics and automation solution company Robotex. Furthermore, SBA found the company SBA Modular, which aims to produce sustainable, modular multi-storey buildings.
