How a commercial printer is winning top talent as it starts to scale

When Pavel Džavík took the reins of AGD PRINT from his parents last year, the new CEO’s goal was to start to scale. The commercial printing company, based in Zlín in the Czech Republic, specializes in making labels and tags. Džavík’s parents founded the company in 1994, persevering through shocks like COVID-19 and now the war in Ukraine. He’d grown up in the business, transitioning to a full-time role in 2017. However, AGD PRINT had plateaued at $2.5 million in revenue with 36 employees, and he saw there was potential for growth.

Džavík became familiar with the Scaling Up platform after attending a workshop where he received a copy of the book Scaling Up and through working with Scaling Up Certified Coach Pavel Krepelka.

“Scaling Up really helped me a great, great, great deal—really life-changing stuff for me,” he says.

Uncovering a growth strategy

Through his work with Krepelka, Džavík positioned himself for growth with a new strategic focus on sustainability and environmental impact. The company launched a new subsidiary brand that utilizes the company’s existing printing technologies to create products from recycled and upcycled materials, in keeping with European Green Deal policies.

Attracting top talent

After getting clear on its strategy and core values, AGD Print restructured its team and began recruiting. Its new strategic direction, focused on sustainability, has attracted attention from the local media and helped the company hire top talent from universities and larger competitors.

“In previous years, we had issues with recruiting new people for production, the sales department and marketing,” he says. Now, in just six months, he has hired four university students from a program for top scholars. “I’m also recruiting people from other companies around us,” he says. “Some of them are global companies. We’re managing to inspire them to join our team.”

With the war in Ukraine raging nearby, many refugees have fled to the Czech Republic. The company has tried to help, hiring Ukrainians who need to support their families and sending money to charities, he says.

 Embracing the ‘master class’ mindset

To focus on execution of the company’s strategy, Džavík and his leadership team started a weekly “master class” five months ago. The purpose is to keep everyone focused on the company’s big “rocks” – the goals that will have the largest impact on the business’s success.

“We’re starting to bring in other team members so they’re making a dent in the rocks and participating in the solutions,” he says.

The company is also adding more training as it upgrades its equipment, offering more growth opportunities to its team. “In previous years, we didn’t invest much in training,” he says.

Prioritizing operational profit

Although the company is investing heavily in both training and new printing equipment, it has continued to stay in the black. “We’re creating some operational profit, and that’s important,” he says.

Even better, revenue from its customer base is improving. About 70% of the company’s business is recurring. That is split among about 700 different customers, with about 6% coming from its biggest account.

 “When I look at January and February 2024, and compare them with this year, we’re seeing a spike in new orders because we have a lot of recurring business,” he says.

With a strong strategic plan and systems in place, Džavík can now lead his team with the confidence they have a clear roadmap as they start to scale.