Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) – The operator must fire employees unless it finds other ways to develop. There are many ideas but the company lacks funds.
Telekomunikacja Kolejowa (TK) is one of the smaller operators on the Polish market. However, several ago, Maciej Srebro, the former Ministry of Communication, was appointed its CEO. Mr. Srebro was one of the possibile candidates for the head of Polkomtel mobile company.
“I was asked by minister Jerzy Polaczek to take this function in order to make the company more dynamic”, Maciej Srebro explained.
TK has 1 percent of the Polish telecom market. There are 3,500 people working in this company. Last year, it had PLN 43.2m (EUR 10.9m) of net loss against PLN 209.5m of sales.
“We need to restructure the employment. I assume that trade unions will be reasonable. Unless business mechanisms are in the company, the firm will operate worse and worse. A chance to use that many employees is to implement GSM-R system, a standard in railway communication in the EU. We will implement a pilot program in this respect”, Maciej Srebro stressed.
He admitted that some agreements signed by the company are unprofitable.
“We will probable make a reserve for the debts we cannot pay back. There are no chances for a net income this year”, Maciej Srebro said.
He has ambitious plans for the future.
„We could be a serious partner in projects connected with mobile telecommunication, WiMax or TETRA”, Maciej Srebro enumerated.
Mobile services are the basis of the strategy of TK. The company won free GSM1800 frequencies but failed to make use of them because the shareholders decided the company had not enough funds. However, TK is going to take part in another tender for frequencies.
“We need a partner”, Maciej Srebro admitted.
There were media speculations before that TK might work with Polkomtel. Nearly 50 percent of the company is owned by state-owned companies.
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.253)