K2 and Sluno have had a lot in common for years. They were founded in Ostrava, and in 1991 they bet on the field of software, information technology and improving process management in companies. Both are also 100% owned by Czech owners, employ hundreds of people and supply their solutions not only to Czech companies, but in recent years they have increasingly developed their activities abroad as well. They are also united by the fact that they show very good economic results in the long term.

Since the first of December, after more than thirty years of existence, two large companies from Ostrava are also connected in terms of assets. A fifty percent share in the Sluno group is bought by K2, which owes its success to the development of corporate information systems primarily for manufacturing and wholesale companies, but in recent years has also expanded its activities into the e-commerce segment. K2 sees the main benefits of the connection with the Sluno group primarily in the area of warehouse management or the deployment of robots and the expansion of implementation capacities.

The new chairman of the board of the parent company of the Sluno group, U & SLUNO as has been replaced by Miroslav Krupa since December, who until now held the position of CEO of this company. The second member of the board of directors will be Tomáš Szkandera, CEO of K2 Software. Jiří Novák, the current 100% owner and chairman of the board of directors, is moving to the position of a member of the supervisory board, in which he will be joined by a member of the supervisory board of K2 CAPITAL and an executive of K2 connect solution Marek Kučera.

Two stories, one vision

"The whole story of the collaboration started relatively inconspicuously. We were looking for partners who would be able to help us with development, but during the cooperation it became clear that we are really close to each other in terms of business and values and that we complement each other in many things. Then it was already a step to come to a property tie-up," says Petr Schaffartzik, chairman of the board of directors of the K2 group. At the same time, he adds that the Sluno brand will continue to appear under its own name, but will now become a partner company of K2."When I became chairman of the board of Sluno four years ago, I realized that in the future it would be good to be able to rely on a strategic partner. To be able to provide further impulses for the future of the company. That's why I contacted a consulting firm and we started looking for potential partners together. The truth is that K2 has always remained outside the field of vision of our considerations in this regard. But after a separate course, communication developed between the director of our company, Miroslav Krupa, and the director of K2 Software, Tomáš Szkandera, about the fact that we could help each other commercially or in terms of implementation. It turned out that we understand each other in many things, which provided the basis for deepening cooperation," adds Jiří Novák, who has owned the Sluno group since August 2021.

Sluno has significant references especially in the retail environment. Among its customers are the Albert, Makro, Tesco, Tamda, Hornbach and COOP retail chains. In 2020, they expanded their activities to include automation in the form of autonomous and RPA robots.“The field of robotics is one of the things where Sluno is further ahead than us, and we certainly want to gradually incorporate their know-how in this area into the offer for our existing customers. But even more important for us in the whole process were the values of the company, which, like us, tries hard to build a company culture from people. That is why it is also necessary for us to take care to take gradual steps in the coming months. I am proud that K2 never became a classic corporation in thirty years – and I am convinced that this is also one of the key reasons for our success," concludes Luděk Vydra, the majority owner and one of the founders of the K2 group, which in its 31 years of existence has grown into a company with more than three hundred employees and an annual turnover of over half a billion crowns.