Industry

Every country takes pride in its industry, and its best products become a business card of the country. It is for fourteen years already that the Product of the Year competition has been organised in Lithuania.

The Lithuanian trade mark is being created
It is for many years that Lithuania has been observing the largest European states take pride in their best products. For 50 years the best Lithuanian products were concealed under the label “Made in the USSR”. The re-establishment of the country’s independence opened up the possibility for Lithuania to show to the world what industry of this small country can take pride in.

Every year the Confederation of Lithuanian Industrialists, which unites the strongest industrial companies of the country, announces the Product of the Year competition. As the organisers of the competition underline, these awards are not state awards; it is the appreciation of the business community. In other words, the business community evaluates one another’s production. Of course, it is done with the help of professionals only. Specialists on different spheres, European quality experts who can assess products from the outside and without any pomp are invited to act as assessors.

By the way, selection of the Product of the Year in Lithuania is made in the similar way it is made in other countries, and the requirements are also similar.

Man, environmental and market-friendliness. These are basic criteria according to which the best products made in Lithuania are selected. It is no less significant that the market should recognise the product. Marketable products are awarded Product of the Year medals. The way it is packed and presented, as well as its visual qualities, is also of great importance.

Requirements are high
Facts show that the title of the Product of the Year leads Lithuanian companies to other victories. Companies try to make that product more marketable, that it should have attractive packaging. Organisers of the competition do not doubt that this title helps companies to sell that product easier. Some manufacturers noticed that their trade in the products of the year increased by as much as 20 per cent.

Sometimes organisers of the Product of the Year competition receive excellent, high-quality products, which are worth the highest awards. However, if they fail to comply with at least one of the above-mentioned standards, the Commission does not vote as the manufacturers expect it to vote.

For example, this was the case with Tarybinės (Soviet) sausages. Products of the Company Samsonas have been really recognised as marketable by the users. The assessors of the competition also found the quality of the products excellent; however, the name was at variance with the community-friendly criteria. The word “Soviet” takes Lithuania back to the bleak period of the soviet system with planned economy and the occupation power. Though some part of the residents of older generation might have sentiments to that word, delicious Samsono sausages were not given the right to be called the Product of the Year.

Mainly food products
On the whole, the history of the Product of the Year testifies to the fact that Lithuanian food industry holds the position of a leader. Food industry in Lithuania is especially strong, and competition is so fierce that supply is more than sufficient for such a small market as Lithuania.

Most probably it is for this reason that earlier 80 per cent of the products that claimed to be awarded the title of the Product of the Year were food products.

The organisers of the competition found it really difficult to single out the best bread and meat products. Every year the manufacturers flood them with their best achievements. Milk processing companies have to prove almost miracles because the struggle for a place on the shelf is really fierce. It is no longer possible to surprise either the organisers of the competition or the consumers with various products. Therefore the manufacturers rack their brains creating new products that the world has not seen yet. For example, Lithuanian granular curd was created in this way. In the neighbouring countries this delicious and healthy product is bought up immediately because nobody has managed to create anything like that thus far. This product of Pieno žvaigždė has also been awarded with the Product of the Year medals. Hence, the struggle for the title of the Product of the Year makes manufacturers offer something new to the market.

It is not easy to select the best products from abundance of meat products either. However, priority is given to the healthiest products that contain no preservatives. Or to the products that have been made to an exceptional recipe.

Even bridges are awarded

The best vessels built in the country, sports arenas built for the European Basketball Championship 2011, bridges of impressive structures, diesel locomotives, Lithuanian household appliances, newly opened trading and business centres highly assessed by the professionals, complexes of dwelling houses, new and efficient electric power stations, even cities’ roundabout ways are becoming Products of the Year in Lithuania.

In the opinion of the organisers of the competition, such an extensive list of the assessed objects helps us realise that all branches of industry in Lithuania have something to be proud of.

Though Lithuania’s pharmaceutical industry is not one of the strongest in the region, small companies have something to surprise us with. Lithuanian food supplements are positively evaluated abroad, therefore they are worth being awarded the title of the Product of the Year.

Services are also evaluated
The country’s economy cannot be imagined without strong business of services. Therefore the titles of the Product of the Year are also awarded to exceptional and new services. For example, in 2008, communication by train between Vilnius Railway Station and International Vilnius Airport was awarded the gold medal. Perhaps Vilnius alone can boast of such communication. It takes the train 7 minutes to take passengers from Vilnius Railway Station, which is situated near the Old Town, to the airport, and the fare is less than one euro. Such examples cannot be found anywhere else in Europe yet.

Titles for ideas
Lithuania claims to become an information technologies centre in the region. Therefore products of high technologies created in the country are awarded prizes of the Product of the Year. They are awarded to Lithuanian computers, the Internet service websites. In 2007, the first Lithuanian mobile phone “TEL202” created by Vilnius Company Teltonika was awarded the Product of the Year medal. The most successful electronic ticket distribution systems on the Internet are also awarded.

Last year the award went to the portal teatrai.lt in which information about what and when is on at all Lithuanian theatres, descriptions of performances and their reviews could be found immediately. Though it is not any novelty in the world, the appearance of new convenient products on the Internet shows that the Lithuanians are creative people.

Medals of the Product of the Year are also awarded to the most successful and marketable software developed in Lithuania. For example, banking software “Smart safe” of the company 5 kontinentai (Five Continents) is being implemented in the world, especially in Eastern countries intended for controlling automatic cashier safes and performing cash operations. Hence, those companies, which are recognised on an international scale are first to deserve the title of the Product of the Year.

On the whole, the title of the Product of the Year is most often awarded to those companies, which export their products successfully. Export indicators and export growth are of great importance to the assessors of the candidates. The attention that the consumers who are the best assessors show to the environmental products is on the increase. Therefore the organisers of the Product of the Year competition take this into consideration and modern wastewater treatment plants are also awarded gold medals.

There are more business evaluation competitions in Lithuania. However, only the Product of the Year awards are handed out by the Head of the State at the President’s Office. This testifies to the exceptionality of the competition.

Lithuanian products of the year have been selected 14 times already. Organisers of the competition hope that these titles will become symbols of the Lithuanian quality on the global trade arena.

Several years ago other branches of industry also entered a com-petition for the Product of the Year. Every year light and chemistry industries find something new to offer to the Product of the Year competition. Manufacturers of building materials nominate especially many things for the highest industrial award. For example, ceramic tiles and house finishing materials are becoming the industrial business card of the Company Dvarčionių keramika.