TOP ESTONIAN ENTERPRISES

In July this year Tallink sets the record – more
than million people travelled with the company
ships, no one has seen so high number. At the
same time, in the conditions of decreasing competition
and income of people, the company had
to decrease the ticket prices, the large number
of passengers do not always mean higher sums
for the company. Last year was quite a good
year for Tallink. “Last year it was especially
pleasant that two new ships were introduced in
the line at a time: “Superstar“ in spring and
“Baltic Princess“ in summer and this brought
along several changes, “Princess“ came to the
line of Tallinn-Helsinki and “Galaxy“ went to the
line of Turu-Stockholm, from there “Silja Festival“
went to the line of Riga-Stockholm. When
looking back, this was the right moment for
such exchanges and we ourselves would have
liked to do it earlier. The ship plant could not
manage with its questions as expected. It was a
right decision, as the numbers of passengers
increased and the investment was needed,“
Hunt thinks.
The company’s management was not satisfied
with the last year’s financial numbers. The profitability
fell, the sales increased by only 3% and
the number of passengers slightly increased.
The growth in profitability was in its turn cancelled
by the abrupt increase in fuel price.
Tallink has also surely made its activities more
effective. As the fuel prices though raised too
high, effectiveness resulted in no benefit. The
share of goods transport fell by about 30%, but
the ship has to serve also the remaining shipments
and the expenses for the company are
still the same. Andres Hunt thinks that the
client of passenger ships requires further on
more training and being used to it that the travelling
by ship is also the method for spending
leisure time besides travelling from one point to
another.
“We are not only pure transport company, we
have all other services, consumptions on board
which cover the expenses. If we take the income
structure, the percentage of the ticket is 20%,
the consumption makes a half and the percentage
of goods shipments was also about 20%.
The hotels of Tallink and other services to be
provided still add there,” Hunt says.
The economic periods are connected with each
other always in business. Thus Tallink has the
possibility to be satisfied in the current difficult
time that the big investments have been made
and the possibilities for providing better quality
as to the tender have been guaranteed. The
client gets these possibilities today with also
cheaper price than before. Hunt states that the
client’s expectations are different and currently
one’s finances are viewed with more attentive
glance than before.
“We can’t confront the rest of the world, but go
with the flow. You should be attractive and aggressive.
We can’t exclude that bigger changes
should be made. If the line has high loss, then it
needs to be closed. There are different variants
and we have played these scenarios through
and now one should watch what the future
brings. We should also negotiate with the partners
and apply for the more favourable attitude,
make alternative purchases, all that provides
another way of thinking and cooperation between
the partners. If one has to survive together,
the plans should be made together,”
one of the managers of Tallink is sure.
The major activity of Tallink is now the review of
the saving possibilities – on account of which it
is possible to save, on account of which one
could earn more. The extra money of 1 euro
means millions of euros for the company.
Andres Hunt says that this same difficult time
offers him a lot of motivation. There are different
possibilities and the choice of possibilities
and the success is a big challenge. He provides
one simple sample of optimising. When the bottom
of the ship was before cleaned for example
once a year, then now this is done more often,
as the bottom of the ship will be full of algae and
so the ship moves slower and also takes more
fuel. Small matters bring along major changes,
but with one exception: nothing should visibly
become worse for the client.
“We were able to implement the investment
programme at the good times, we find it easier
to go on from here. If we had used the old ships
further on, then I do not know whether we could
have been able to remain in the competition. In
the big picture everything is still well. We know
that this situation is not influenced by us, but
from outside. We are sure that our strategy has
been successful, we have not detected mistakes
there. At the same time one should very seriously
think at the state’s level on that Estonia
would not lose attractiveness and this is greatly
influenced by the state’s coping with economy,“
Hunt adds to sum up. •
Transportation and Logistics Enterprises
Place
Müügitulu Müügitulu Puhaskasum Puhaskasumi Omakapitali Tööjõukulud ühe Tootlikkus ühe Investeeringud %
Ettevõte muutus muutus tootlikkus töötaja kohta töötaja kohta esimesest
*konsolideeritud
tuh kr koht % koht tuh kr koht % koht % koht kr/kuus koht tuh kr koht tuh kr koht (0...100)
1 TALLINK GRUPP AS* 12,310,015 1 103.4 6 317,976 2 30.3 12 3.1 12 32,549 4 1,875 6 4,240,289 1 100.0%
2 ASPERAAMUS OÜ 58,717 10 85.8 11 3,966 10 329.5 1 91.7 1 12,847 12 8,388 2 341 11 78.8%
3 TALLINNA SADAM AS* 1,168,968 2 100.6 7 416,644 1 124.1 4 9.0 9 29,573 5 2,352 4 560,000 2 69.3%
4 LENNULIIKLUSTEENINDUSE AS 244,472 4 105.9 5 72,322 4 87.9 7 30.3 5 50,118 1 1,798 7 53,326 4 61.5%
5 LAJOS AS* 108,008 7 118.2 2 6,221 8 246.5 2 38.6 2 18,371 11 1,964 5 20,772 6 58.1%
6 SPACECOM AS* 449,013 3 74.4 12 149,005 3 109.7 6 25.2 6 34,804 3 6,803 3 4,488 8 55.5%
7 DPD EESTI AS 121,561 6 124.1 1 4,691 9 87.3 9 31.0 4 25,669 7 1,764 9 3,399 9 49.8%
8 TESA LOGISTICS OÜ 63,203 9 86.4 10 3,737 11 56.8 10 31.1 3 20,865 8 9,029 1 5,071 7 46.7%
9 ESTEVE TERMINAL AS 145,179 5 109.8 4 10,945 6 87.9 8 23.4 7 25,690 6 925 10 47,557 5 38.7%
10 SAARTE LIINID AS 53,588 11 111.1 3 10,024 7 121.2 5 6.5 10 20,401 9 670 12 127,935 3 33.4%
11 NTN EST AS 4,820 12 99.8 8 184 12 217.3 3 4.1 11 19,704 10 689 11 12 33.2%
12 TNT EXPRESS WORLDWIDE EESTI AS 101,522 8 86.4 9 22,451 5 50.2 11 9.6 8 37,296 2 1,781 8 1,452 10 30.6%
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1 EUR = 15.6466 EEK; 1 EEK = 0.0639 EUR; based on 2008 data
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