Mutual benefit

Janis Simins, president of the Jauda energy company based in Riga, presents the company he has been working for since 1977

J. Simins demonstrates the products of Jauda to Riga city councilman M. Talmaks. Photo: Jauda

The origins of Jauda energy company date back to 1961 when small workshops were organized to make products for electrical networks, mostly for the purpose of agricultural electrification. In 1963 the workshops were reorganized into an experimental plant, dubbed Jauda, but in 1991 the company was one of the first Latvian businesses to be privatized by a group of employees and transformed into a corporation under the same name – Jauda.  During years of hardship when there was little demand for our products, we were neverthless able to overcome the crisis and start going uphill.

Products

Today our products are in demand to maintain the electric power supply to Latvia. I can name three key groups of our products.

Group 1 is low-voltage equipment – metering, distribution, lighting, cable  and control boxes. These products are used mostly by Latvian electricity utility Latvenergo to improve its electricity metering systems.

Group 2 is medium-voltage equipment up to 24 kV, – transformer substations up to 24 kV, disconnectors up to 24 kVt, Latvenergo being the key customer also in this group.

Group 3 is metal constructions. From the start Jauda was the plant for making large pylons for electric power transmission lines in Latvia with capacity of up to 330 kV. All high-voltage pylons in Latvia and various accessories to them were made by our company.

In addition, Jauda is the only plant in the Baltic states making bare aluminum wire cables. We also make safety fuses of up to 400 amperes under a license from a German company and are the only Baltic producer manufacturing current transformers under a Swiss license. Our product assortment lists over 200 items.

Clients

Up to 60 percent of our products go to Latvenergo. The rest is used by Latvijas Gaze gas company, Lattelekom telephone company and, recently, also by Latvijas Dzelzcels railway company as well as by all electric power assembly companies using our products.

About 5 percent of the output is exported, mostly to Germany but some products are also shipped to Norway, Switzerland and, of course, to Lithuania, Estonia and Russia.

Russia became one of our export destinations only recently, although first attempts to this end were made already before the 1998 economic crisis when we started working with the Urals (Yekaterinburg) and Moscow.

Today we have very good relations with Moscow, first of all with the Haitek-Raesk  company. I think if our ties grew stronger it would only be to the mutual benefit of both parties. Our technological level is very high, we can make products of a quality not any worse than those turned out by Siemens but our prices are lower. We are also hoping for cooperation and have already made some moves concerning transformer substations much needed by Moscow.

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Jauda turnover in 2001 was 20.5 million euros and production grew 24.3 percent year-on-year. According to the TOP-500 of the business daily Dienas Bizness, the energy company was recognized as the best producer in Latvia for 2001. Jauda employs a staff of 300 people at average monthly wage of 253 lats (EUR 420), and Simins claims the company has been paying its taxes in full for the whole 11 years of its history. Profit after taxes in 2001 was 1.7 million euros.

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Maris Tralmaks, executive director of Riga City Council:  

"Riga City Council has been actively negotiating various issues with the Moscow city administration for almost a year now. One of these issues is supplying Moscow with electric power equipment made by Jauda, which has establish contacts with the Moscow municipality. A cooperation agreement has already been signed between the company and the Moscow city administration. Muscovites are interested in satisfying their energy needs with the help of quality equipment that would be easy to adapt to Russian conditions and also at acceptable prices. But I would like to underline that this is only one of the many issues we are discussing. Prospects in cooperation with the Moscow city government are interesting and favorable. One should pray to God to have enough time and strength to carry out all the plans."