• 16/05/2022
• By wizewebsite
• 575 Views

He started as a door-to-door salesman, today he has his own brand and a turnover of 200 million<

He studied at the Czech Technical University, and if he finished school, he could be a builder. He is not a trained shoemaker and he did not have anyone to look at the craft from. From an early age, however, it drew him to his skin and shoes. "When I played football with boys outside in 'rags', I enjoyed fixing them or even improving them with my skin," recalls Dominik Šprunk.

Although he has never worn the whole shoe himself, he has been feeding him for almost thirty years. "I like it when something tangible comes into hand, but I've never found time to spend a day in production," he says. However, he works on proposals daily. From the modification of existing designs through the addition of specific requirements to ordinary footwear to the design of a completely new shoe. "I still enjoy shoes when someone wears our shoes, when I talk about them with customers, even if they complain about a shortcoming, the work still fills me," he adds.

How did you think of selling shoes? And why medical? My mom actually brought me to that. She always placed great emphasis on the health properties of the shoe, so as a little boy she made me wear cork slippers. But the choice on the market was quite limited 30 years ago, you could only buy uncomfortable "corks" from Slovakia, so we started importing and selling massage slippers.

However, it did not stay with the slippers. I also supplied other products to stores and end customers, and I noticed a shortage of medical footwear in medical supplies, so we expanded the range. At first we imported shoes, but shortly after that we started to outsource our own production to Czech factories and then we founded the company Santé - zdravotní obuv.

Were the beginnings difficult? Every beginning is difficult. Just to give you an idea, our first warehouse was in the hallway of the family house, then we expanded the warehouse (laughs) and stored the shoes in the garden in the building cell. It was similar with the production, we started in the garage.

Few people today can imagine how difficult it was at that time to get only a pickup lease, let alone a real estate loan. The banks wanted to guarantee real estate at that time, and we didn't have one. It was a vicious circle. It was not until 2001 that we managed to buy a dilapidated farmstead in Dřetovice, which we gradually repaired and were able to use other loans. And in Proseč u Skutče we bought the building of the former school, which we reconstructed and we produce here to this day.

You supply pharmacies and medical stores, but you also have your own shops. If I count correctly, there are eleven. We have twelve of them in the Czech Republic and one in Slovakia. We prefer people to try on their shoes properly, which is why we run Healthy Footwear Studios. We rent the premises and pay our salesmen. From the beginning, our motto was: Small margin - great client care. And it paid off for us. Not only because we can show the full range of footwear on offer, but most importantly we are able to listen to the customer and we can make sure that we are on the right track.

Medical footwear is no longer just for the disabled, today it is also beautiful. What parameters must a shoe meet in order to be said to be truly medical? This is quite a difficult question, and even orthopedists do not agree on what "medical footwear" is. Nevertheless, we work intensively with doctors and use their expertise in the development of our footwear.

The medical shoe should definitely be comfortable, flexible in the front part, made of natural or breathable materials and, of course, should have orthopedic support for the longitudinal and transverse arches. A certified children's shoe, on the other hand, should have a straight insole, a firm heel and should be flexible only at the front. At the same time, the certificate guarantees to the parents that the shoes do not contain harmful materials.

And we try to make medical footwear also handsome, which is not easy at all. Just because, as they say, what is small is nice, but if the shoe is to be comfortable, it is usually a little bulkier.

How is the 1997 Santé different from the 2020 Santé? The basis is the same, customer care is still at the forefront. Of course, we have grown since then, we currently have 67 people in offices and distribution and 77 employees in production. In total, we produce over 320,000 pairs of shoes a year in the Czech Republic, and every year we offer around 330 brand new items in addition to permanent and successful models, with a turnover of around CZK 200 million per year.

In a moment you will celebrate a quarter of a century of Santé on the market, which I think is a huge success. What are you most proud of? It is a success and I humbly appreciate it. But I must emphasize that I was lucky from the beginning to be able and capable people, without whom I would not get anywhere. And what is our greatest pride? Definitely a customer who returns.

What is the Czech customer like? According to our many years of experience, it is strange that if he likes one shoe, he will always buy it and not look for change. Although we have a lot of novelties in every catalog, we also have tried and tested pieces for years. Some models, of course with minor changes, have been in production for twenty years, customers praise them and some say they have bought them several times. So as long as there is interest in them, we will produce them.

How has the coronavirus epidemic affected the company? Do you have a vacation? By no means, production went on for a long time, but now we had to stop it for 14 days as well. Paradoxically, I have to work twice as much now. I always wanted to have a company as an autopilot plane and just supervise, control. (Laughter) But that's not possible, and not at all in today's turbulent times. Now we have to improvise enough, make it more efficient and look for reserves at all.