Krzysztof Dudek has worked in Altaterra for most of his professional life, and has been CEO for the past two years. VIEW met him for a Q&A about their new strategy, football and the relationship between Altaterra and VELUX.
I joined Altaterra just after I graduated from university, so it was almost my first serious job. I have actually worked for the company longer than I have known my wife, and I have seen Altaterra grow from a small business with just 30 employees to become a relevant B-brand market player with 130 employees.
What has been the most remarkable events or developments during your time as CEO?
There are two things, I want to highlight: we are seeing double-digit growth, which means that we need to size up and grow the organization accordingly.
We have also rolled out our new strategy for the next decade. The strategy includes continued investments and development, tripling our turnover, and developing both online and offline sales.
What challenges does Altaterra face in relation to the new strategy?
When you have a long-term strategy, it takes time to digest and reflect it in shorter term plans. Many employees are curious ‘what does it mean for my role?’ We are in that period now, where we move from strategy definition into strategy execution.
Tripling the turnover means that it will not be the same company. When we were a small company, everyone was involved in almost everything, but a larger company needs to put some processes in place to run the business on a larger scale. Our challenge will be to remain agile while getting more complex.
Another challenge is to keep our long-term focus. When we feel the short-term headwind like these days, there is a tendency to focus on short-term measures, but we must not loose sight of the long-term strategy.
I am very excited about the strategy and our plans for the future. It is not a straight-forward path to get to where we want to be, but I find the journey itself is the most exciting.
About Altaterra
Altaterra, formerly known as RoofLITE, started in 2001 as a low cost, private label alternative to VELUX. The idea was to create a company that could profitably provide products at prices below VELUX to serve the needs of the “price driven” segment.
Since then, Altaterra has evolved considerably, by widening the focus from DIY to different segments. Thus in 2012, Dakea was established as a brand for professional roofers and installers. Simultaneously Altaterra continued to upgrade, improve and expand the product range and private label offers, and today is considered to be a European market leader within the private label segment (over 35 private label brands). It supplies the DIY, housebuilder and professional construction sectors as well as having a growing online market. Learn more about Altaterra
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In April this year, the VELUX Group took over ownership of Altaterra from VKR Holding. What does this mean for Altaterra?
We already had a close cooperation in various areas, so in that respect, it didn’t change much short term. Some of our operations, such as reporting, will change to mirror the way VELUX does things, but for the most part it is business as usual. We expect and hope that in the coming months and years cooperation will even tighten, reflecting our common strategy.
How would you describe the relationship between Altaterra and VELUX?
In the beginning, a lot of people perceived us as a competitor to VELUX. I think this was mostly due insufficient communication or lack of understanding of the strategy behind creating Altaterra. We operate as a B-brand – and as part of a Group strategy to offer more options for the customers. But we hear less and less of this competitor-talk, and the cooperation between our two companies have improved and expanded a lot in recent years.
Altaterra can be used as testing and innovation centre, because we can do things faster and with less risk than VELUX. We have several examples of innovative solutions that we have tested and VELUX has since adopted, such as OSO (Online Sales Organisation). Altaterra also introduced the type plates with unique code numbers now used for installer reward schemes in the CEE region.
Because we operate as a B-brand, we are exploring market segments where VELUX is less present, so we also provide the VELUX group with insights into the full markets.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
When I am not at work, I like to be physically active. Currently I play football twice a week, and many years ago was actually playing a lot in the semi-professional club until I was 19. I prefer to play the midfield, because I like to be on the ball, but I can play any position. At my age it doesn’t really matter. Generally I like team sports where what matters is the collective, not the individual. Both my sons also play football several times a week, and I also play with them if time allows.
Besides playing football, I like travelling and exploring the beauty of Poland. I also like books, especially on topics such as military history and the creation of the universe.
