On Tuesday, December 17, 2019 the children of our employees were visited by the Snow Fairy, the dwarf Rado and Santa Claus.

December – a month in which the days are magical with Christmas spirit. For a child to experience all of this in one afternoon, the KU-KUC Theater invited to their show in the Brežice Youth Center. In the multipurpose hall, 55 children aged 0 to 10, together with their parents, enjoyed the educational holiday story “The Snow Fairy and the Magic Words”. At some points in the performance, both the children and adults, held their breath. This modern Christmas story was full of surprises, educational and entertaining.

Finally Santa Claus was called, for whom everyone had been waiting eagerly. Santa came and the children’s eyes began to sparkle. He called each of the children by name, gave him a gift and immortalized the memory with a photo.

The director of Advantage Austria, Mr. Peter Hasslacher, presented the Energy Globe Award to Kovis for the FUTURA project in Brdo pri Kranju on Thursday, October 17th, in which a new generation of brake discs for freight wagons was developed and patented. They allow higher energy efficiency and 5 decibels quieter train operations. This will improve the lives of the 55 million people living in Europe near rail tracks.

The Energy Globe Award is one of the prestigious environmental awards received by projects focusing on energy efficiency, renewable energy and conservation of resources. The awards are presented nationally and internationally.

More: https://www.energyglobe.info/slovenia2019?cl=en&id=330618

An ageing workforce and sick leave may face a major challenge for each employer and it is thus important to know their characteristics and on the basis of these findings, to develop appropriate management modes of employees in the company.
Following the guidelines of the European Union in the field of active and healthy ageing and solving the problem of the low labour market participation of older employees, as well as high absenteeism of employees, Kovis decided to participate in the POLET project.
The POLET project – “Developing a comprehensive business model for employers for active and healthy ageing of employees”, which takes place in the Eastern Slovenia cohesion region, will take place between April 2019 and May 2022. The POLET project is co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia and the European Union from the European Social Fund.
The main objective of the project is to reduce absenteeism from work by 10% in relation to the starting situation.
On the basis of an analysis of the situation in our company, an individualized programme and a plan for the implementation of activities in the field of active and healthy aging, and reducing absenteeism from work have been developed. The range of innovative measures is helpful to the company and serves as an idea when choosing a measure that the company believes can help improve the organizational climate, interpersonal relationships, and long-term preventive care for the effectiveness at work.
Within the POLET project, the employees will be introduced to various topics in the field of health, training, psychosocial aspects of health and work, work organization, and many other topics.

We are proud to announce that Kovis received the 2019 Platinum Creditworthiness Rating of Excellence.

The Platinum credit rating excellence is issued exclusively to companies that continue to achieve the AAA Gold Excellence for three consecutive years. Companies that achieve Platinum Creditworthiness Rating are perceived as the most reliable, credible and low-risk business entity to cooperate with all business partners. The certificate is Europe’s renowned and recognizable. Platinum Rating of Excellence 2019 represents 1.2 of the Slovenian market.

Companies that preserve good business practices achieve outstanding business results and take care of the satisfaction of everyone involved in the work process. The goal of this recognition of achievements is not only the promotion of well-functioning businesses and good business practices, but also the achievement of financial integrity.
Exceptional payment discipline is important for the health of every company, and it is therefore crucial to maintain a tradition in attaining AAA standards and consequently maintain a good financial condition.

The Energy Globe Award is one of the prestigious environmental prizes received by the projects focusing on energy efficiency, renewable energies and resource conservation. The prices are awarded nationally and internationally. This year’s recipient at national level is our project FUTURA.
Kovis was awarded the prestigious National Energy Globe Award for Slovenia in the World category for the development of an innovative solution Divided brake disc for freight wagons.
The Brake disc DRFB is a revolutionary solution, which affects the 3 key elements of the rail freight transport:

1. Safety and security
2. Health and the environment
3. Cost effectiveness with strong horizontal and vertical “spill-over” effects and crucial social, economic and technical impacts.

Sincere congratulations to all of those who participated in the project FUTURA!

From June 16 to 20, the 19th International Wheelset Congress (IWC) was held in Venice, hosted by Lucchini. Kovis, as an associate sponsor of the Congress, attended it for the first time.

The IWC is held every three years always in another country on five continents and is the leading technology interchange event for the world railway industry.

The location of this conference was a complex of historic buildings owned by Fondazione Giorgio Cini on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice.

During the Congress, numerous conferences were held, and during the breaks, the companies could present themselves at their stand. 26 companies presented their innovations.

Our associates participated for the third straight time in the three- member team Business Run as a part of the 9th Brežice Run with Primož Kozmus on Saturday, June 29.
At the three member team run, the teams of the company, which are made up of three representatives, tested their running steps. Kovis team was represented by Marko Grdanski, Marko Arh, and Kristjan Zupančič. This time, our team too won the Cup, finished in a great 3rd place!

Each member of the team ran out of 1 circle (3,3 km), so in this way, the team runs together the longest distance – Kozmus Run (10 km). In the evening, Cups and symbolic prizes were awarded to the best three 3-member teams at the main concert stage of the Brežice, My Town Festival.

On April 9, 2019, in co-operation with the Fire Brigade Team of the Volunteer Fire Brigade Brežice, we prepared a comprehensive evacuation drill for all employees of the Kovis business premises in Brezina.

The drill was planned to review the ability how to act in such accidents/cases.

The aim of carrying out an evacuation drill is to inform the staff/employees about evacuation routes, the importance of cooperating with the fire department team leader and the evacuation center.

On April 4, 2019, an Apprentice Festival took place at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, in which the company Kovis participated with its trainees.

The economy has welcomed the reintroduction of apprenticeships in Slovenia, as confirmed by the extraordinary attendance at the festival by trainees, their mentors, representatives and secondary schools participating in the apprenticeship program.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry has prepared a rich program. Examples of good practice were presented – companies, trainees, schools and representatives from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry exchanged their experiences. During the lecture of Mr. Marko Juhant the trainees could spend time with the Slovenian rapper Trkaj and the stand-up comedians Perica Jerković and Tin Vodopivec.

All participants agreed that an apprenticeship is an excellent way to get a profession, offering the highest possible employment rate, while enabling further education in programs 3 + 2 and later in high schools.

Kovis participated in the Youth for Youth project as part of the Youth Alliance. Participants in the project are pupils from three secondary schools in Posavje, their mentors and business representatives from the Posavje region, as well as the project leader of the Youth Alliance – MEP Franc Bogovič.

The Youth for Youth initiative aims to encourage collaboration between secondary school pupils and successful companies from the region, while at the same time examining some of the European Union’s directives related to the activities of the companies involved in the project.

On January 28, the company GEN energija organized a working meeting to gather ideas from participating pupils, mentors and representatives of companies in Posavje.

On February 7, the pupils of the project team visited Kovis. Kovis deals with the current European mobility policy. After a brief presentation of the company, they visited our production and gathered additional material to prepare the final report.

The project will be presented in the media of Posavje and at the event of the Krško Chamber of Commerce. A big presentation of this project is planned in the cultural center Krško.