HS Baco Panels and the magic of 10

They say a team is as strong as its weakest member and that a company is nothing if not a collection of stories of people who have helped make it successful. As we celebrate ten years since world’s largest blockboard factory has joined the HS Timber Group family, we also celebrate the people who have been with the company since the very beginning.

HS Baco Panels has been home to Ciprian Cracovalschi for 20 years now. We invite you to read on to find out the story behind the man who how leads two core production departments at the blockboard factory in Comănești.

Ciprian was only 25 years old when he joined the wood processing plant in Comănești back in 2000. This year, he celebrates 20 years with the same company, where he started from a position of a simple worker and now leads two core production departments.

A native of Comănești, Ciprian brought along some knowledge, as he had graduated from the wood industry profile at the town high school. “My schoolmates and I liked the small tables we used to see in furniture magazines, so, one day, we made one as well,” he recalls. “We weren’t that fortunate, though, as our teacher caught us ‘in action’ and we were punished as we were not supposed to do that. Now, at Baco, we work with what we love."

Wood is more beautiful than iron

The factory in Comănești processes softwood timber which couldn’t be otherwise be put to superior use and turns it into blockboards and shuttering panels used in the furniture and construction industries. The company is European leader on the segments and its products are sought after by customers in over 40 countries on five continents.

The manufacturing process for blockboard follows precise steps, which, for a non-specialist, may seem complicated.

The production lines in the newest sections of the factory are both important steps and a technological success. Manufacturing blockboard includes a lot of know-how and much technology, it is what pundits call engineered board – a type of board which includes lots of ‘engineering’.

But Ciprian feels it’s not complicated.

“Initially, I was hired as a worker, I built and assembled lines, I helped paint them,” says Ciprian. “Then I moved to more specialised processes, I started working with press 1, which is now ‘my soul machine’. The press was assembled when I started working at HS Baco Panels and I was operating it. It was totally different from what I had previously done, namely the production of curved furniture, where I only had contact with beech. This time it was softwood which was the ‘star of the show’.”

After going through a working experience with both wood essences, the verdict is clear: “In the manufacturing process it is easier to work with softwood - which is a more malleable wood, compared to hardwood, such as beech. Hardwood tends to have greater contractions. After drying, it becomes stronger as a fibre. Its processing is much more cumbersome. With softwood, if it is green, it cannot be processed too much, but when it is dry is much easier to process, it is a malleable material,” considers Ciprian.

He currently is the head of the Baco 1 and 2 core production department.

“At the beginning was nice and pleasant, because it was something new for me and there were a lot of young people,” he smiles. “When I started working at Baco, the average age was somewhere around 35, and now it's grown to 40, which means there are many colleagues who have remained with us. Currently, the youngest employee in sections 1 and 2 is 18 years old and the oldest is almost 60."

After 20 years of growing alongside the Comănești factory and the existing technologies, Ciprian leads his team with openness and willingness to learn from each other. Despite viewing leadership as a challenge, he says he has learned to listen to his team and, together, to come up with a higher return and a higher efficiency.

And Alexandru Agache, administrative mill manager of HS Baco Panels, agrees with this state of mind. “Ciprian is one example of people who have grown alongside the company. We have almost 800 employees working here, at Baco, and many of them this year celebrate 20 years with the company. People like them – who are passionate about their work and teams – are role models for the younger generation, they are what makes us efficient and reliable for our customers.”