TSG Bulgaria – 30 years Anniversary – Maria Genova-Bageleyska speech

Dear Guests,

As I was preparing for this day, I remembered my first day of work. My first day of work was at… this company, at TSG,… 27 years ago. Back then, the company’s office was… in an apartment,… a three-room apartment in a Sofia neighborhood. I was still studying at the university, was 20 years old, and at that time, I did not anticipate, that so many years later, I would not want or even consider changing my workplace.

Today our office is large… We are now more than 120 people. And we are the largest service company in Bulgaria.

Vesel Valkanov – the founder of the company. He is the person who extended a hand to both me and many of my colleagues. … And to this day, I address him with the formal ‘You’. Despite his insistence,… for a whole 27 years, for us to use the informal ‘you’.

Mr. Valkanov, I will never forget how our small team then, led by you, worked around the clock, including in the field at Shell and OMV petrol stations. And thanks to that experience, we know every detail, every screw and bolt of this business – building and servicing a gas station. From then until now, our company has built more than 300 gas stations, and currently, we service almost 700 sites in Bulgaria.

Thank you for the trust! Thank you for the knowledge, the opportunity to learn and grow!

This opportunity has also been afforded to all my colleagues who have been working at TSG BG for nearly… 20 years.

In this emotional moment for me and for all of us, I’d like to address another respected person… Gicho Vichev. The living history of the company for already 30 years, the engine of our team.

He’s probably the person I’ve driven the most miles with in a car, from gas station to gas station, at any part of the day. I’m sure he won’t be mad, if I share a story about how, at minus 10 degrees, at 4 o’clock in the morning, we traveled with the window down, on the icy roads of the country… because of his cigarette… Today, he is a passionate non-smoker.

Today, I have the challenging task of taking the baton from him. From the man who set such high standards and benchmarks for management and leadership in our company. He is not just a mentor, visionary, and strategist. He is so much more.

From him, I learned, that in life and in business, no matter what happens, there is always a solution and a way out. That success is not final, failure is not fatal. What truly matters is the courage to continue.

Thank you for entrusting me! I will do everything possible to ensure the bar remains… just as high.

I’ll share an intriguing fact with you – it turns out I am the first woman to lead a company in the TSG group, spanning 30 countries…

Yes, it appears to be a very male-dominated business.

Now, I would like to address another very respected person for me– Mr. Friedrich Schalk – the General Manager of TSG for Central and Eastern Europe.

Dear Mr. Schalk, thank you for your faith in my abilities and the professional support you have extended to me. It is an honor and a significant responsibility to assume the leadership of TSG Bulgaria starting from the beginning of 2024.

We are proud that TSG Bulgaria is a part of TSG Solutions (“TSG”), which is the European leader in technical services and mobility solutions encompassing various energy sources (electricity, biofuels, natural gas, hydrogen, and traditional fuels).

We at TSG Bulgaria recognize our responsibility for the development of sustainable mobility. Our aim today is to act as a trusted service provider in this area, to create long-term value for our shareholders, and to manage a business that upholds high levels of environmental and social outcomes.

Our business model has evolved over the years… If in 2021 our primary activity was predominantly from sales and installation of equipment for traditional energy sources, today, in the context of dynamic growth, 10 percent of our sales are now from green energy source products (gas, charging stations, and solar panels).

Our goal by 2026 is to reduce the share of traditional energy products to 63% and to increase our business contribution to new energy solutions… to 18%.

The management team of TSG Group adopted a strategy and policy for “Corporate Social Responsibility.” The TSG Sustainability Roadmap is based on 7 principles and commitments.

• Health, Safety, Security, and Environment – This is a top priority and a fundamental part of our work.
• Commitment to reducing our own carbon emissions in operation – We are on track to fulfill the Paris Agreement’s ambition for carbon neutrality. We have set clear intermediate targets to achieve. And they are… to reduce our direct carbon emissions by 25% by 2025.
• Ethics, human capital, and the supply chain – We invest in our people – They have always been the key to our success.
As a leader in the industry and a pioneer in the transition to sustainable mobility services, our experience and talent underpin our business model and our “Corporate Social Responsibility” strategy.

At this moment, I want to remind you of our slogan, which you might see everywhere here: “Move with TSG. Energize your future.” Translated into Bulgarian, it means: „Движи се с TSG. Зареди своето бъдеще.“ These aren’t just words. It’s a metaphor for our philosophy – on how we, as a company and society, can and should move forward and energize our future with new ideas, new solutions, and new opportunities.

And at the end I will tell you a story.

A few weeks ago, my son was asked at American College, why he chose to study at their school. And do you know what he answered – “..for fun”. I thought, that to get here in our work there is a dose of fun and challenges, but the truth is that there is a lot of hard work. Do you know what I said to him, after I found out what he answered? – “I wish you to find,..to do,.. to work that thing that you love.”

I love what I do! Thanks for the opportunity to do what I love!

Both me and all my colleagues. And so now, I want to invite all of them present here in the hall to the stage.

The people with whom I work and will work shoulder to shoulder. The people whose professionalism and diligence are well known to all of you.

Applause for them! Thank you, colleagues! You are the heart of TSG Bulgaria.