Darja Petrič Florjančič as chief financial officer and Valter Leban as chief purchasing officer, who performed similar jobs on the old board, join Bolko on what is a thoroughly overhauled top tier of management.

The new chairman suggested the company's policy and course will remain the same. "There will be no major changes, we are pursuing a long-term policy," he told the press in Ljubljana on Wednesday.

Healthy growth based on profitable products and aversion to borrowing will remain at the core of the company's policy. "We will stick with this model," he said.

The long-term plan involves growing revenue from the current level of EUR 450m to EUR 750m by 2017 and a billion euros by 2022 in order to become a mayor player in Europe.

The targets are to be achieved with organic growth as well as acquisitions. Bolko singled out the energy industry as having great growth potential.

Kolektor started out as an automotive industry supplier but it has expanded, mostly through acquisitions, to the energy sector, industry automation, and home equipment.

Petrič plans to stay on in an advisory role and he will be "coordinator" for the shareholders, three interlinked companies in which he holds significant indirect or direct interests.

Kolektor was one of the first companies subject to a management buyout, in the mid-1990s, and one of the few in which the buyout was successful.

As Petrič put it, if the company had been sold to American investors, who expressed interest in 1994, when the previous German partner exited the venture, Kolektor "would not exist today".