Christmas Interview with Watrex CEO doc. RNDr. Marek Minárik Ph.D., MBA

Christmas is approaching and with it the time when we look back on what we have achieved and reflect on the challenges that await us. In this Christmas atmosphere, the CEO of Watrex Praha, Marek Minárik, gave us an interview, and together we looked back on the year 2024, which was full of new projects and unexpected challenges. Mr. Minárik shared with us not only his private and professional challenges and successes, but also his Christmas traditions, the values that he shares with his loved ones during this festive season, and what plans his team has for the new year. Let yourself be inspired by a look behind the scenes of the management of a Czech company combining science, innovation, and the Christmas atmosphere.

What was 2024 like for you and Watrex?

I would probably call it a time of endings and new revolutionary beginnings.

And what do you mean by that?

For me, personally, it was the year when I successfully completed my 2-year MBA at the University of New York in Prague at the beginning of the summer. Sitting back in the classroom after almost 25 years, with classmates 10 and even 20 years younger, was a truly interesting life experience. And I'm not talking about the final graduation in the classic American style with throwing square caps in the air. And in autumn I got married .. for the second time i<n my life and certainly the last time ... and it was an unforgettable event ...

And as for Watrex, this year we managed to successfully complete the development of a very unique microfluidic separation platform and we also launched the development of a laboratory robotic station, which we are convinced has no direct equivalent on the market. The microfluidic system was the result of a large TAČR KAPPA grant project, where we, together with colleagues from the Norwegian Research Center SINTEF (the project was financed by Norwegian funds) and the Institute of Analytical Chemistry, developed a miniaturized version of our patented REPETTO™ technology based on recycling chromatography. On the other hand, we are developing the pipetting robot (called xTrovert™ FLEX-O™) entirely on our own. It is a unique benchtop laboratory system for high-capacity automation of sample pretreatment using solidphase extraction.

Watrex Praha: Christmas Interview with Watrex CEO doc. RNDr. Marek Minárik Ph.D., MBA

Interesting, so what was the biggest success and what are you most proud of?

Probably the biggest success was that after an incredible development sprint, we already had the first prototype of xTrovert in April, which we first showed at the Analytika exhibition in Munich and then presented at the TIDES USA conference in Boston in May, and it was a phenomenal success. It turned out that we have a truly unique product that has great potential for automating the purification of oligonucleotide synthesis products. It has recently been one of the fastest growing tools in the pharmaceutical industry. Let's remember, for example, that the vaccines that saved the world in the COVID-19 pandemic were based on the principle of synthetic mRNA. And last but not least, we won an award at the domestic LABOREXPO exhibition in June for xTrovert™ FLEX-O™ ... that's always a pleasure.

A great success was also obtaining support for a new grant project, where we are part of a top scientific consortium together with researchers from the Academy of Sciences in Brno and Charles University in Hradec Králové within the Programme (OP JAK) - Intersectoral Cooperation.

And I am proud of all my colleagues in the company who have contributed to the successes this year and continue to contribute. It is the result of a joint effort from technical and design development, testing and production through application development in the laboratory, but also administrative support and, last but not least, excellent marketing.

Now let's get to the topic of the upcoming Christmas. Do you have any Christmas traditions within Watrex?

You know, my dad (Ing. Milan Minárik, founder of the company [editor's note]) always had Watrex as his extended family and for Christmas he always based his time on two traditional events, the first of which was a pre-Christmas skiing trip in the Alps and the second a Christmas party, which he called a besídka. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to go to that skiing trip for several years (and it's mainly my fault, of course), but we always have a Christmas “besídka", often with surprises and gifts.

Watrex Praha: Milan Minárik and Marek Minárik

Before Christmas, many companies have a tradition of giving out or sending gifts with their logos to customers. What is your opinion on this tradition and do you also follow it?

I remember the nineties, when “promotional items” were an integral part of trade fairs and (pre-)Christmas gifts to customers. We gave up on this a long time ago, because most planners, gift boxes with pens or envelope openers ended up at the bottom of drawers or straight in the trash. But as time goes on and the world increasingly moves into the abstract digital space, we thought that suddenly real things take on a new meaning. So two years ago, we returned to sending out (or personally delivering) a company calendar to customers. It wasn't just any "readymade" calendar, it was created for us by the great Czech photographer Marek Schmied, and this year we have a calendar created with Czech landscapes by photographers.

Is there a Christmas moment or story that you remember fondly?

I remembered Christmas in 2017. At that time, we had a project in which, together with colleagues from the Institute of Informatics and Chemistry at the Institute of Chemical Technology, we were building a database of Czech beers, based on profiling the composition of maltooligosaccharides, which are formed during beer fermentation (it was a kind of beer fingerprinting). We had a refrigerator in the laboratory full of different types of beers, and at that time I was also the reporter of the Competence Center focused on improving brewing raw materials and products, and I had completed a crash course in sensory evaluation of beer. So we thought that as part of the Christmas party, we would hold a competition in recognizing different types of beers from the collection that we had amassed at that time. It was great fun and the biggest fun was that in the end, the holiday beer drinkers (or rather beer drinking women) did the best in the competition, while we "beer connoisseurs" pretty much failed.

How are you doing with work before Christmas? Do your customers shop more or less before Christmas?

We don't offer any seasonal products, but we see a certain increase in sales (at home and abroad) in the last months of the year as a result of our customers drawing down allocated funds, for example within the framework of grant projects.

Do you manage to "switch off" from work matters during the holidays? What helps you switch off from work during the holidays the most?

Not at all, but my work pace definitely slows down a bit. There is nothing more beautiful than enjoying the magical silence of empty offices, laboratories and workshops in the glow of candles and Christmas decorations in the period between holidays …

Christmas is a time when we reflect on values. What values are important to you in your personal life and business?

I value tolerance, sincerity and empathy for others as the greatest values in people. This empathy is related to the ability to not only think about your own needs and to be ready to forgive others. At work, I really enjoy working with people who use their brains, I love logical thinking, when problems or situations in general are solved analytically by gradually moving from one state to another. That is why I am also happy that we do interesting projects, develop and offer technically or applicationally interesting products and services. Fields like finance, where nothing new is created except money, would not satisfy me.

What are your plans at Watrex in the short and long term?

I would like us to start mass production of our robotic systems next year and I would be very happy if we also do well in the new grant project. And if I had to look further ahead, I would like us to establish ourselves more significantly abroad. I have a dream that our product will be the market leader in at least a certain market segment. As Czechs, we certainly have the potential to succeed in the world of technical products, look at what my great role model Martin Wichterle is doing at Wiko.

If you could have one Christmas wish, what would it be?

Let us be happy and healthy, let us do the best we can for others, and let the joy and happiness we cause be the best reward for us. Let us love our loved ones, acquaintances and strangers, and let us believe that the world around us is not nearly as bad as we might think. But above all, let us believe (and if we can, let us help to achieve it ourselves) in the victory of the civilized world over the Russian barbarian world in the struggle that is still taking place so menacingly close to us.