March 19, 2007
Fifteen years is a serious date for a company, especially one founded in such a difficult period. We started from scratch. We did not inherit anything free from Soviet times. Everything we achieved is the result of our work. The first six years were especially difficult: we learned to work in new conditions, built the team, accumulated engineering and production experience, and learned to conduct business properly.
During those first years, we built internal potential, dealt with creditors and purchased serious equipment. The first successes, oddly enough, came right after the well-known default, and this is easy to explain.
- First, the financial market began to return to a more normal state. The dollar was no longer artificially undervalued, the artificial dominance of imports disappeared, and normal competition became possible.
- Second, by that time we had reached a serious product range and started producing fillers and manual packaging machines, and soon filling and packaging machines. We gained a major customer, which triggered rapid development.
- Third, with rising oil prices, despite negative consequences for many Russian industries, household income grew and the post-Soviet economy began to develop.
The years from 2001 to 2005 were very successful. We grew by at least 25-30 percent per year. By 2006, NOTIS had entered the top three packaging equipment manufacturers in Russia.