S&K LABEL won prestigious Czech Best Managed Companies 2022 Award

S&K LABEL, a leading manufacturer of self-adhesive labels received this award as the first printing company in the Czech Republic; it harvests acclaim not only for the quality of its production, but also for its management, strategy, and vision fulfillment.

Best Managed Companies, sponsored by Deloitte Private, is an awards program that recognizes excellence in privately held companies across more than 35 countries worldwide.

Best Managed Companies Programme

Deloitte provides professional services in audit, tax, consulting, business risk and financial advisory. The programme was established in 1993 in Canada and has become the most significant business award of its kind. In the Czech Republic, Deloitte representatives presented the Czech Best Managed Companies award for the third time this year.

The award is decided on by an independent expert jury that evaluates four key pillars:

• strategic direction,
• productivity and innovation,
• corporate culture including social responsibility, and
• management structure and financial performance.

Comparison with the best and brightest

S&K LABEL was founded in 1991 as the first privately invested printing company in the former Eastern European countries specializing in the production of self-adhesive labels. The founders of the company were real visionaries, predicting the upcoming demand for self-adhesive materials in Czechoslovakia and decided to invest in the cutting-edge technology of the time - the Letterpress B200 UV printing machine. The philosophy of always doing everything at the absolute technological top has guided the company throughout its 31 years of existence.

In the beginning, there were four printing machines in rented premises, with forty-five employees; nowadays, the company boasts its own production plant in Ku?im with almost one hundred and eighty employees and eleven state-of-the-art flexo, three digital and five finishing presses.

"We don't just want to be the best in the region; we also want to be capable of self-reflection and compare ourselves to the best and brightest globally. The programme has undoubtedly enabled us to make such a comparison. It was also an interesting benefit to have another independent view of how our company operates", says Ing. Miroslav Vrba, Executive Director of S&K LABEL, and continues: "Over many years of practical experience, I have come to the conclusion that the key to success of any company is a clear goal, sophisticated strategy, excellent product, high-quality technology and properly set up business processes; however, the main role is played by a perfectly coordinated team of skilled employees who are willing to pursue a common goal."

When deciding whether to participate in the programme, the company's executives got convinced by the evaluation methodology used. The BMC is not just a competition to assess a company's economic performance or its popularity with consumers. It is a competition that works with the contestants over a long period of time, examines the current situation, and then consults with external advisors to provide different economic perspectives and recommendations for improving strategies and approaches.

Therefore, the first year when the company participated in the programme was a year of improvement and refinement based on suggestions and comments from Deloitte. After one year, it was certain that the company had moved significantly forward and could afford to benchmark itself against other companies of similar size in the Czech Republic. It entered the second year with a clear goal to succeed.

"The Czech Best Managed Companies programme evaluates the quality of corporate governance and management in key areas such as strategic direction, productivity and innovation, corporate culture, management structure and financial performance. S&K LABEL has shown that it demonstrates quality at the level of the best managed companies – the jury particularly appreciated the company's long-term goals and market position, its sophisticated product strategy, adaptive corporate culture and openness to changes."
Miroslav Svoboda, Country Leader of Deloitte Czech Republic

Thanks to this award, S&K LABEL has been ranked among global companies such as SOUDAL (a Belgian manufacturer of sealants, PU-foams and adhesives), CEWE from Germany (a leader in photo processing), or the Packeta group, which owns the Zásilkovna parcel delivery firm.