High Tech Lab: a long winding road to success

The 80's - difficult start under the communist rule

High Tech Lab, HTL, came into existence in the spring of 1981 by the initiative of Andy Czernecki, in Warsaw, the capital of then communist Poland. As the owner of one of the first private companies in the country, Mr. Czernecki utilized his company to fill the vacuum in liquid handling products that existed in the command economies of the Eastern Block.

A large demand for the quality pipettes produced by HTL quickly developed in the Soviet block. Liquid handling equipment was a luxury never before produced on such a scale in communist countries, while import was out of the question for economical reasons. The mass demand for pipettes lead to an energetic expansion of HTL, which by 1985 was employing over 700 hundred people. The relatively large employment was also the result of a necessity for total self-sufficiency. The income of HTL at that time was in a soft currency, the Ruble, which was worthless in the West, while no companies existed in the country that could provide HTL with even basic necessities such as screws. This forced HTL to produce all the pipette components by itself. Nevertheless, in the decade since the creation of the company, one million pipettes where sold in East Europe.

By the second half of the 80's HTL began to look for potential distributors in the West. This was dictated by the need for hard currency by which the firm could purchase resources vital for an improvement in quality of pipettes. By 1988 HTL had an agreement with the US based company Abot, to which it sold Pipettes on a OEM bases. By the second half of the 80's it also established a co-operation with distributors in Europe, in countries such as Germany and Italy. Consequently by 1989, HTL had created fundaments in its future market.

CSP pipette ...the most popular pipette in the communist block >>

1989 - time of dramatic transition

By 1989 the economy of the communist block was bankrupt. The main currency used behind the iron curtain, the Ruble, became worthless within weeks. The rise of the trade union, Solidarity, in Poland in the 80's lead to semi-democratic elections that proved fatal for the Communist Party. The consequent de-regulation of the market lead to a galloping inflation of about 100% per month in Poland. The freely elected government initiated aggressive financial reforms and greatly increased interest rates in order to halt the inflation. This had a devastating effect for any company which had loans at the time and many of them filed for bankruptcy.

With the collapse of the Soviet block, 80% of HTL's market disintegrated almost from one day to another. At the same time, taking a loan with the existing interest rates of around 90% was impossible. The company was in a dramatic situation and only decisive action saved it from economic failure. In a very sad episode of HTL's existence, the company had to cut back employment by 70% to 150 members of personnel.

A certain demand for pipettes remained in Poland but what saved HTL from bankruptcy was the already established links with the West. By 1991 the company developed and began to produce pipettes for the newly existing US based company, Labnet, opening the doors to the vast US market.

The 90's - finding its way in the West

The early problem facing HTL in regard to convincing the West of its quality products, was, paradoxically, the low production cost of HTL pipettes. HTL's engineer's and worker's wage's, and production costs, where lower than their equivalents in the West at the beginning of the 90's. First HTL's distributors where purchasing HTL pipettes at low prices and forwarding them on the market at low prices with no additional marketing effort or service support. This gave the negative impression of HTL pipettes being low class. It took a lot of effort and diligent work on behalf the HTL staff to convince distributors to change their strategy, which they gradually did.

In 1991, HTL pipettes where introduced in the United States by Labnet. After the first year the level of sales where at a mere 1.5% of the US market, but prognosis' where good. Due to high reliability and quality, by 1995 the presence of HTL liquid handling products increased in the US to over 10%. At the same time HTL was selling pipettes in Europe, to Slamed in Germany; Kartel in Italy; Jencons in Great Britain, Biosystems in Brazil.

V3 pipette the most popular HTL pipette in the US at the time >>

The New Century - The Present - The Future

Today PZ HTL S.A. is developing more dynamically than ever. Introduction of highly successful line of LAB MATE pipettes at the end of the 90's combined with consequent policy of strong support and close relations with company's distributors resulted in further growth of marketshare and strengthening of HTL' distribution network at the beginning of 21st century. Within the last 4 years we reached the number of 80 distributors in 64 countries worldwide. Incorporation to HTL's distribution network of highly professional partners such as Abimed in Germany, Pobel in Spain, Dainippon in Japan or Techtum in Sweden brought valuable input to the product development and sales policy of High Tech Lab.

Basing on the close relationship with distributors, sharing where appropriate marketing intelligence and trends, we continuously aim to explore new markets and define the niches. We put strong emphasis on the implementation of the new products and the development of the existing ones.
 

<< LAB MATE. The most popular pipette of HTL
 

New ideas are constantly being implemented in HTL products and customers have an ever increasing choice of products to satisfy their needs. The latest examples of the co-operative marketing venture is the development of LAB MATE⁺ Pipettes, DISCOVERY Pipettes and Electronic Pipetting Controller.

With Poland's entrance into the European Union in May of 2004, HTL and HTL-STREFA do not have to worry about large fluctuations in the market on the scale of 1989. HTL is proud of the success in liquid handling and lancets that it achieved in the more advanced western markets. HTL's employees had to work harder than their counter parts in the west to prove the quality of Polish products, and now, when barriers are being lifted, their diligence has remained, which is why the only option is success.

LAB MATE’s successor >>