TOP ESTONIAN ENTERPRISES

Photo: Toomas Tuul
TÕNU ÄÄRO
“The question is in that the tax money of tens
of millions of kroons goes today to someone
else’s pocket, at the same time the state
makes major cuts in the budget. These are
very high sums which will not be received by
the state. At the same time such illegal activities
cannot be directly called the fraud. The
taxes will be rather unpaid as planned. The
state still expects the payment of taxes from
each company, but here it has been pre-programmed
that no payments will be made. This
strongly changes the market and today the
market of liquid fuels has been totally spoilt,”
the company’s manager is seriously worried.
Probably the state will not receive at least
twenty million kroons a month in the face of
the value-added tax.
Tõnu Ääro is sure that he made a very right
decision six years ago when coming to MNTH
from the major corporation Gillette group, the
business of essential commodities, as the
work provides sufficient challenges. At first
the fact that fuel is a stock exchange commodity
which is daily influenced by the world
market seemed most different from the previous
experience for him. “If you have operated
in the field of essential commodities before
then the situation there is different: you create
the price at the beginning of the year and
if no major changes take place, then you work
with this price list up to the end of the year.
But here the price changes every morning –
always new numbers. Most of the marketing
methods are also not usable in the wholesale
of fuel, the main sales argument is price, the
remaining values such as additional services
have a minor impact. Though I just see the improvement
of the quality of services involved
with the sale of products the main objective of
MNTH in the future to make the cooperation
as comfortable and effective as possible for
our partners.
Ääro also explains the often incomprehensible
logics for the regular consumer – the price of
oil can fluctuate, but the fuel prices might not
follow its trends short-term. One thing is the
price of the crude oil at the world market and
the other is the price of the world market of oil
products which has been influenced by the limited
production volumes, which in the long run
still follow the price trend of the raw material.
The wholesale prices of fuels in Estonia are established
according to the prices of the world
market and the fuel inventories are for up to few
weeks for the local sellers. Provided these have
been acquired with higher price, the retailer of
fuel has no reason to sell the goods acquired
with higher price with cheaper price at the
abrupt decrease in world market price. The
other matter is competition which has become
tougher at the Estonian retail market. “Here the
retail price is decreased also when the market
price increases. Meanwhile the competition was
quieter and the margins were good, but today
the non-existent margins are played with.”
By joking the manager of the company states
that he himself has not watched the oil near the
derrick. And though, should he? The main principles
of production technology have been specified
in the trainings in the refinement plant, but
something new could be found all the time, for
example today the new subject is the bio fuels.
The main task of MNTH is still the sale and the
different parameters need to be known for the
good sales. “We have four main products and it
could seem that this work is very simple, but actually
this is big work with high volume and liability,”
Ääro summarizes.
In summer the company’s manager rides the
bicycle and skies in winter. For the last two
years he has been related to the one of the most
successful Estonian sports club CFC, being the
president of the latter, More than hundred
young people train under the guidance of the
good trainers in the bicycle school of Jaan Kirsipuu
and ski school of Jaak Mae, but all new
students are welcome. Pirita where the club operates
has the excellent opportunities for bicycle
sport and there are the best ski tracks of
Tallinn and soon the branch of the sports club
will be opened by Viimsi Secondary School. Ääro
is really pleased that several companies find resources
regardless of the difficult times to support
the youth sport. Although one should admit
that this year the support of sponsors has considerably
decreased and as the situation of the
club is not easy, people act based on the real
saving regime. Ääro calls for the companies to
support just the sports clubs where the children
and young people train, this especially in the situation
where several local governments have
considerably decreased their support and many
sports clubs are forced to close their doors.
“Our children have to go in for sport regardless
of the situation in economy, they are the future
players of our country!” •
MAZEIKIU NAFTA
TRADING HOUSE OÜ 2008:
Sales (th EEK) 7,911,943
Change in sales 136.3 %
Net profit (th EEK) 35,389
Change in net profit 101.8 %
Number of employees 9
Investments (th EEK) 309
Return on equity 63.1 %
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