Business News

In Business News this week: the EU has agreed on new agricultural policy, which Czechs do not support; Russian oil firm Lukoil wants to buy a stake in several Czech refineries; a packaging firm scoops the title of Business of the Year; over a half of Czechs find it difficult to get by on their current income, and Czech hoteliers are registering a decline in the number of guests.

Czechs call new EU agriculture policy unsatisfactory, but a step in the right direction

After months of talks, the EU agreed upon new agricultural policy on Thursday – without Czech support. Agriculture Minister Petr Gandalovič said that he was not entirely satisfied with the talks’ end result, but that the new policy was a step in the right direction, and a great improvement upon the original proposals. Mr Gandalovič was praised in Prague for the concessions he secured. The agriculture minister said that farms receiving more than 300,000 euros in subsidies each year would now see that rate cut by four percent, as opposed to the nine percent originally suggested, while farms receiving less money would not see their subsidies cut at all. The Czech delegation also hoped to negotiate the country’s share of EU agricultural funds up to the level of the union’s oldest member states. On Thursday, Mr Gandalovič said that this had not been achieved, but that the Czechs were now to receive some extra funds.

Lukoil seeks to buy stake in Czech refineries

Illustrative photo: archive of Radio Prague

The world’s second largest privately-owned oil firm, Lukoil, has said that it wants to expand further into the Czech market by buying a stake in several Czech refineries. Head of the company Vagit Alekperov told Hospodářské noviny on Friday that at the moment his firm sold the majority of its oil in a crude state, and that he wanted Lukoil to expand further into the refinery side of the business. The firm already owns refineries in Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania, and earlier this year bought a 49 percent stake in Italy’s second largest refinery. Lukoil currently has 44 petrol stations in the Czech Republic, and this year, won the contract to provide airplanes with fuel at Prague’s Ruzyně airport.

Servisbal Obaly voted Business of the Year

Packaging firm Servisbal Obaly has won the Czech Business of the Year award. The results were announced on Thursday, after months of deliberation. The jury chose the Eastern Bohemian packaging firm for its profitability, productivity and expertise, with one member of the panel praising the company for even being able to package airplanes for export. Second in the competition was Building SP, a specialist in construction materials. The prize for Entrepreneur of the Year went to butcher Jaroslava Klemensová from Dolní Benešov, while franchise ‘The Pub’ won in the new category of Business Rebel of the Year, for its customer-friendly prices in the face of stiff competition.

Over a half of Czechs find it hard to get by on current income

Foto: Kristýna Maková

More than 50 percent of Czechs find it difficult to get by on their current income, suggests a poll conducted by the CVVM agency. Some six percent of the poll’s respondents went as far as saying that they found it very difficult to survive on the money they earned alone. The poll found that the social groups with the biggest financial problems were pensioners, unqualified workers and those who left school without gaining a final certificate. CVVM suggested that a high proportion of these people either tended to vote for the Communist Party or not at all. Those on the other end of the spectrum, who told the agency that they felt themselves to be well-off, were often self-employed, university graduates and company managers who, the agency suggested, tended to vote for the Civic Democrats.

Visitor numbers at Czech hotels down in third quarter

Prague, photo: Kristýna Maková

The number of foreign visitors staying in Czech hotels was up in the third quarter of this year, but the picture, however, wasn’t all that rosy for Czech hoteliers. Guest numbers in the country’s hotels were down slightly in the third quarter with a sharp decline in the number of Czech guests opting to holiday at home. The only sections of the industry to measure a rise in visitor numbers were high-end four- and five-star hotels. Campsites, hostels, chalets and other cheaper facilities which usually prove popular amongst Czechs were said to have suffered the most from the sharp drop in domestic tourist numbers. The figures are supported by data from the Association of Czech Travel Agents which suggests that more Czechs than ever before are choosing to holiday abroad.