Tomáš Březina, of the company BEST, is Czech Entrepreneur Of The Year 2007

Tomáš Březina, founder and sole owner of the company BEST, a.s., has won the prestigious title of 2007 Czech Republic Entrepreneur Of The Year. He received his trophy yesterday in Prague’s Žofín Palace from Dirk Kroonen, managing partner of Ernst & Young, which has organized the competition in the Czech Republic since 2000. Josef Suska of the company HOKAMI CZ s.r.o. was named Technology Entrepreneur Of The Year. The Trophy for Start-up Entrepreneur Of The Year went to Tomáš Rychtar of the firm ROLOFOL s.r.o. The 2007 Czech Republic Social Entrepreneur Of The Year title was awarded for the second time this year to recipient Jozef Baláž of the civic association Liga. Zdeněk Černý, founder and owner of the firm BIOMAC Ing. Černý s.r.o. received a special jury award.

“Entrepreneurship is mainly about overcoming obstacles. I am a builder by trade and starting to do business with concrete pavement some seventeen years ago was a logical step. Today, every other flooring tile or concrete paver in the Czech Republic originates in one of our plants and our sights are set eastward for further expansion,” says Tomáš Březina about his business.

The judging panel explained its decision as follows: “The competition is not just about numbers that can be totted up in an Excel table, but above all it’s about interesting and successful human stories, and Tomáš Březina absolutely meets this criterion. He is an example of clear vision and a continual entrepreneurial journey. His business not only propels his own company forward, but the entire field. He operates in a highly competitive environment while at the same time realising above-average profits.”

“Every year, the competition brings us dozens of business stories and behind all of them we find not only success, but also hard work, risk-taking and the assumption of responsibility. The judges had a very difficult task again this year and we believe we have selected the right candidate to defend the colours of the Czech Republic at the World Entrepreneur Of The Year competition this June in Monte Carlo,” said Dirk Kroonen, managing partner of Ernst & Young in the Czech Republic.

Joint stock company BEST has a 50% or so market share in its field, meaning it is the leading player in a market it helped to create: the market for concrete structural and ornamental components for garden architecture. Founder and sole owner Tomáš Březina built the firm from a limited liability company with the minimum required equity of CZK 100,000 into a joint stock company valued at between CZK 2.2 – 2.5 billion. However, this trained builder and court-certified expert in the field of industrial and civil construction likes being in business for himself and has turned down offers from gardening giants. BEST has four production centers as well as strategic stocks of basic raw materials, which will keep another 20 years. Březina not only works to develop his own company, but also to support the field in general. He recently founded the Czech Alliance of Concrete Workers and before that headed up the Association of Outdoor Architecture Manufacturers. Březina sees the entrepreneurial road as one full of obstacles, which the most gifted of entrepreneurs are able to see coming and turn to their own advantage.

This year’s Entrepreneur Of The Year competition finalists were:

• Ondřej Fryc, Internet Mall, a.s.
• Josef Jeleček, TEDOM s.r.o.
• Jaroslav Nožička, KOBIT, s.r.o.
• Jan Mičánek, Less, a.s.

The title 2007 Czech Republic Start-up Entrepreneur Of The Year, designed for entrepreneurs in business for less than five years, was awarded to Tomáš Rychtar of the company ROLOFOL s.r.o., the only manufacturer of stretch film in the Czech and Slovak republics. “Of course we went into business in order to generate a profit, but we get the most pleasure out of turning our own ideas and vision into reality and being the ones to decide when and how,” says Rychtar. As partner Václav Kučerka adds: “Entrepreneurship is above all about freedom.”

Josef Suska of the company HOKAMI CZ s.r.o., a manufacturer of single-layer and multilayer printed circuit boards, won the title of 2007 Czech Republic Technology Entrepreneur Of The Year. “We mine the technical potential of Czechs, and the fact that we know how to be faster and more resourceful than our competition. We continually innovate our products and try to take advantage of every little gap in the market while further expanding the number of countries to which we export our products,” says Suska.

This year the Social Entrepreneur Of The Year title was awarded for the second time – to Jozef Baláž of the civic association Liga, which integrates handicapped or otherwise socially disenfranchised people into the labor process on a natural and open labor market. The Social Entrepreneur Of The Year 2007 competition is a spin-off of the Czech Entrepreneur Of The Year project. “My experience employing people who are somehow disenfranchised or handicapped has taught me that everyone is employable. It’s simply about finding a place where a person can meaningfully apply his potential,” notes Baláž.

A special jury prize went to Zdeněk Černý, founder and sole owner of the firm BIOMAC Ing. Černý s.r.o., which develops and manufactures technology for the production of environmentally-friendly briquettes and produces the briquettes themselves. “I have believed from the start that an environmentally-friendly heating program can and will be successful. We have already tried it abroad, and I am now hoping that we’re able to foster an environmentally-friendly approach here in the Czech Republic. With every wood briquette we produce, we stem the tide of the big monopolies,” says Černý.

Any company owner or manager with at least a 20% stake in the company was eligible to enter the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2007 competition. Such a person must be responsible for the performance of his or her company and be an active member of its highest management. The company must have been in existence for at last 2 years.

The company ABRA Software is the competition partner. Other supporters are the Czech Chamber of Commerce, the CzechInvest agency, TUESDAY Business Network, the Czech Venture Capital Association and the US Business School Praha. Media partners are the daily MF Dnes, the weekly EURO, the monthly BIZ, Český rozhlas Radiožurnál and iDnes.cz.

Regional winners

Entrepreneur Of The Year 2007 for the South Moravia region:
Jiří Fusek, Pivovar Černá Hora, a.s.

Entrepreneur Of The Year 2007 for the Vysočina region:
Josef Jeleček, TEDOM s.r.o.

Entrepreneur Of The Year 2007 for the Moravia-Silesia region:
Tadeáš Franek, REFRASIL, s.r.o.

Entrepreneur Of The Year 2007 for the Olomouc region:
Zdeněk Černý, BIOMAC Ing. Černý s.r.o.

Entrepreneur Of The Year 2007 for the Pardubice region:
Martin Samek, Pacific Direct s.r.o.

Entrepreneur Of The Year 2007 for the Plzeň region:
Tomáš Březina, BEST, a.s.

Entrepreneur Of The Year 2007 for Prague:
Ondřej Fryc, Internet Mall, a.s.

Entrepreneur Of The Year 2007 for Central Bohemia:
Jan Mičánek, LESS, a.s.

2007 Czech Republic Entrepreneur Of The Year Judging Panel

• Pavel Juříček, JJudging Panel Chairman, Managing Director of the BRANO Group, Czech Republic Entrepreneur Of The Year 2006 and World Entrepreneur Of The Year 2007 finalist
• Ondřej Bartoš, Senior Investment Director, MCI Management S.A.
• Kateřina Janků, Managing Director of Moravia IT, Czech Republic Entrepreneur Of The Year 2000 and World Entrepreneur Of The Year 2001 finalist
• Zbyněk Frolík, Managing Director of the company Linet, Czech Republic Entrepreneur Of The Year 2003 and World Entrepreneur Of The Year 2004 finalist
• Radim Jančura, Director of the company Student Agency, Czech Republic Entrepreneur Of The Year 2005 and World Entrepreneur Of The Year 2006 finalist
• Jana Ryšlinková, Director, US Business School Praha
• Miroslav Řihák, Managing Director of ANECT, Czech Republic Entrepreneur Of The Year 2004 and World Entrepreneur Of The Year 2005 finalist
• Kvido Štěpánek, Director of the company Isolit-Bravo, Czech Republic Entrepreneur Of The Year 2002

2007 Czech Republic Technological Entrepreneur Of The Year Judging Panel:

• Ondřej Bartoš, Judging Panel Chairman, Senior Investment Director, MCI Management S.A.
• Michael Al-Nassir, Pedersen & Partners
• Jiří Beneš, 3TS Venture Partners
• Michal Nosek, Plastika
• Ivan Pilný, TUESDAY Business Network
• Radim Králík, Grapo, Technology Entrepreneur Of The Year 2005
• Jan Červinka, ADASTRA, Technology Entrepreneur Of The Year 2006