VARIS Lendava: Quality Above Everything

How much importance do you place on relationships, both in the company and in the family? How are these relationships intertwined? What challenges do they bring?

Štefan: Leading VARIS means that you often have to work outside normal working hours. When work is over and at weekends it is hard to switch off and resume your personal life. Often, even when we aren’t at work, the discussion leads to business, and since we all live for VARIS, we talk about it. But any strategic and in-depth decisions are made officially, in the office.

Sabina: Good interpersonal relationships at work are very important, but it can be challenging to maintain them, especially when your family is part of the company. It is important to constantly work on these relationships, to build, control and maintain them, both within the family and at work. It is also challenging to balance family life and business, especially in a family company. At home, I’m a mother and partner, not the Director. Everybody has a bad day occasionally, but together with my partner Marko, who is also part of the VARIS leadership team, we try to leave such problems at home. We remain professional and don’t bring personal challenges to work. However, it is also important to remember that you can never please everyone, no matter how hard you work on improving relationships. There are many challenges involved in leading VARIS, both market and growth-related, changes in the company, and of course, the transfer of leadership.

I am very proud of our dynamic growth, which is also sustainable, and I am proud of our employees, who help us grow. It is said that when the number of employees doubles, the company becomes different. VARIS was also recognized by the Slovenian Gazela awards for fast-growing companies, and our rapid expansion means that we must work, systematically and with dedication, on fostering connections between people. I see this as one of the tasks, or rather one of the responsibilities, of our leadership.

I must point out that generational transfer of leadership probably counts as one of the more difficult changes in the lifecycle of any family business. The challenge is not only successfully completing the process, but also the transformation of leadership it brings. I steered the company towards a modern approach to inclusive leadership and empowerment of the leadership team. All important decisions are made collectively and part of the leadership team which maintains the company’s organizational affairs, is also my partner, Marko Čuš. Our revenue in 2021 reached a new milestone of EUR 33 million, and our added value continues to grow.

The motto of your company is “quality above everything”. You are also Green. Creative. Smart. ambassadors for the SPIRIT Slovenia Business Development Agency. How do you combine quality with sustainability? Where does digitalization come in?

Sabina: One of our key strategic goals is quality assurance at all levels of the company. Commitment to quality is part of everything that we do and one of our five corporate values is responsibility. Our business strategy and annual business plans are based on environmental and social responsibility. As such, our sustainability has three pillars: care for the environment, care for people and community, and care for economic success. Without the latter, we cannot be sustainable, which means we must also pay attention to financial indicators.

We put a lot of company time and effort into sustainability in all areas, such as sustainable materials, waste and water management, constant reduction of energy use and emissions, powering all our manufacturing processes with electricity from our own solar plant. We manufacture ready-made bathrooms with materials and equipment that meet the highest standards of sustainable manufacturing.

We are also in the process of digital transformation, which is one of our main business goals. In 2022, we plan to digitalize and connect all our manufacturing processes.

Between 70% and 90% of your revenues come from foreign markets. What are your goals for the near future?

Sabina: In the last few years, one of our largest investments has been the construction of a new, 2400 m² manufacturing plant, which was completed last year. Last year we also bought space to store our semi-finished products, renovated old spaces and locker-rooms and built a cafeteria for the employees. We have and will put a lot of energy into building our organizational culture and internal communications.

As I mentioned, our current main goal is digitalization of business processes and preparation of the VARIS 2030 strategy. In Slovenia and abroad, VARIS has become a synonym for ready-made bathrooms of the highest quality, making us an established supplier, which we plan to remain in the future. Considering that every ready-made bathroom we produce is unique and that digitalization is becoming an important part of technology and development, we are also becoming a developer of technological solutions for investors and customers. This means that our customers do not buy only a ready-made bathroom made to their specifications, but the entire service from planning to construction, as well as our post-installation services. Every year, we invest 5% to 8 % of our revenue into research and development (R&D). We also have our own R&D team, whose main goal in the next two years is to implement innovative and sustainable solutions and create new trends in the field of prefabricated bathrooms. One of our strategic goals is quality assurance at all levels of the company – quality above everything, as we say in VARIS.

You have made 100,000 prefabricated bathrooms. How much will this number grow in the next 20 years? What will VARIS Lendava look like then?

Sabina: We are currently developing our VARIS 2030 strategy. It will define our medium-term goals and vision. Our focus is not on an extreme rise in productivity, but on innovative products of an even higher quality. Our products will be even more sustainable, more environmentally friendly and we will focus on environmentally friendly materials and technologies. A ready-made VARIS bathroom will be a smart bathroom, meaning that every process and parameter within it will be controlled from one point, including temperature, humidity and air-conditioning. Every ready-made bathroom will have its own “materials passport”, which will detail its carbon footprint and its adherence to various standards of sustainability.

It’s difficult to talk about the number of ready-made bathrooms in the next 20 years. By then, VARIS will have manufacturing facilities around the world, because we want shorter transport chains and we are capable of transferring our knowledge and know-how. The size and productivity of our manufacturing plants in Slovenia will be impacted by the competitive position of Slovenia within Europe and internationally, as we plan to stay focused on foreign markets. We will launch additional activities to spread our risk.

We would like everyone to know that VARIS can meet all their expectations and solve all the challenges of planning, building and renovating bathrooms. We want to grow our trademark until VARIS becomes a synonym for high quality and the future of modular construction. Our goal is to have our ready-made bathrooms installed in at least one hotel of every international chain across the globe. We want the most prestigious hotel chains and the best and largest constructions companies that build residential buildings, nursing homes, hospitals and jails to trust the quality of our bathrooms. In addition, we will continually grow as a socially responsible and sustainable company. Throughout the decades, we want to maintain and fortify our position as a leading European manufacturer of prefabricated bathrooms and we see the company as a European multinational.

Your children, the third generation, are still in elementary school. How do they see the company – as a community, as something that is part of the family? Do they show any interest in it?

Sabina: It’s true that my sons are still in elementary school, but they have always been interested in what we do in VARIS. The company is part of the family and some of our everyday conversations include business and work, but it is still too early to say whether they see themselves working for the company. Marko and I will let them decide for themselves what they want to study and do with their lives; this is not something that can be forced. I also know from experience that it can be a good thing if you get your first work experience and begin your career outside of the familiar environment of a family company.

What motivation and responsibility comes with receipt of the EY Family Business Award of Excellence 2022?

Sabina: The award we received comes with pride, purpose and responsibility. We are proud to be recognized for our excellence, so our purpose and responsibility are to keep things that way. We feel responsible to ourselves, our family members and business partners, the local environment we operate in, but also the Slovenian and international economies and societies as a whole. We are creating a better world for everyone and building a responsible future.