"We are sticking to the plan. Experience from Hungary has shown that returning to markets where we operated in the past can be a great success. The branch in Moscow has achieved good results so far and is experiencing a strong growth in sales,” claims the CEO of the AAA Auto used car dealerships Karolína Topolová.
Politicians and economists who want to get mothers back into the world of work from maternity leave as quickly as possible would certainly be delighted by the CEO of the AAA Auto used car dealerships: Karolína Topolová is after all getting out of a car in front of the office with her daughter who is just starting to say her first words. The whole company is also returning at a similar pace to markets which it left once the financial crisis broke out.
The company founder and your predecessor in the CEO’s chair Anthony James Denny has resigned from all of his positions in AAA Auto. How did the way the company works change due to that?
That step has no impact at all on the running of the company. Mr Denny still works as my advisor for strategic decisions, a position which more than thirty years of experience under his belt make him perfect for. His expertise is invaluable to me, but he no longer engages in the everyday running of the company.
But he still owns over 80 percent of the shares and has announced that he wants to sell them. How will the company change then?
The process of selling the shares is in a very advanced stage, but the outcome is still not certain so I can’t comment on when it will be finished. Mr Denny will however remain a minority shareholder and his continued work as an advisor is being counted on.
Is it true that you want to return to Poland next year and then also to Romania?
We are still sticking to that plan. Experience from Hungary has shown that returning to markets where we operated in the past can be a great success. The decision made in the past to enter those markets was in all cases supported by research which confirmed their potential to us. Nobody in our country could have suspected that such an wide-ranging economic crisis would occur. That is why we had to leave those countries. If we return at the right time after having performed thorough analysis, we have a chance at success. Several business premises of authorised car dealerships are for example now for sale in Romania at a very low price, which is something we are watching carefully. At the same time, sales of new cars are already increasing in the country and our experience shows that if sales of new cars increase in a certain location, there is also subsequently an increase in demand for high quality used cars.
And how is the branch in Russia doing? Are you not worried about the after-effects of sanctions, devaluation of the rouble or tensions in Ukraine?
The branch in Moscow has achieved good results so far and is experiencing a strong growth in sales. We are of course worried about devaluation of the rouble and the impact of the situation in Ukraine just like other businesses. Although this situation has not affected us yet, future political and economic development is uncertain. But we are still sticking to the plan to open another branch on the other side of Moscow next year. Then we will see, because it is very difficult to predict anything at this moment in time.
- Master’s degree from J. A. Komenský University in the field of adult education.
- Started at the Prague Hilton Atrium hotel as a programme manager, founded the AAA Auto Call Centre in 1998 and later became HR Director of the company.
- Married with one daughter. Her hobbies include running, snowboarding, badminton and foot tennis.
- Topolová was a child actress (she acted in The Rainbow Marble, a film by Kachyňa); her older brother Jiří Procházka played the lead role of the boy Janek Dlouhý in Long Live Ghosts.
