Holzindustrie Schweighofer Rădăuți – 10 years of perfection in timber

Nicky, Paul, Adrian, Vasile, Cristiana, Ionuț, Giorgio or Sorina are just a few of the names who, back in September 2008, went to work every day in a refurbished church in the city of Rădăuți. Ten years later, the Holzindustrie Schweighofer Rădăuți mill manager (Nicky), the Group Head of IT for Romania (Paul), the purchasing director and managers (Adrian, Vasile and Ionuț), legal specialist Cristiana, the ‘conductor’ of the cutting hall (Giorgio) and HR manager Sorina remember their first day in the new office building, whose doors opened on October 1, 2008…

Holzindustrie Schweighofer celebrates 10 years since it started production in its sawmill in Rădăuți. However, 10 years ago, the location where the production facility now stands was a maize field. Seasoned employees fondly recall their beginnings in their new home.

Mill manager Nichifor Tofan (Nicky for his colleagues) was the first employee of the project, namely the construction of The Gerald’s Hotel and of the production facility in town. “They had just completed the land acquisition when I first came to Rădăuți, but there was no infrastructure in place yet, no access road, no sewage, optic fiber or electricity supply,” he remembers. “Only a few months later a temporary headquarter was acquired, a former church building, which had been refurbished. So I can literally say that I did not step foot in a container at first, but into a church, maybe this has also been of help to our project…”

The platform and the production halls were built first, followed by the office building at the end. A pillar from the very beginning was Gheorghe ‘Giorgio’ Prelipcean, who took part in excavation works, poured concrete, helped build the production halls and assembly the machinery and today leads the activities in the cutting hall. “My first feeling – when we took down the maize field and started excavation works for the new construction – was that it’ll be a lot of hard work on the working site and I asked myself whether we would work the German way or the Romanian way. Now, I can’t even remember how time has passed! But the actual construction of the entire plant took one year and a half…”

Over 600 people work for Holzindustrie Schweighofer Rădăuți today, delivering softwood products – especially from pine and spruce – which are appreciated by clients in the furniture and construction industries in Romania and over 70 countries worldwide.

Giorgio is just one example.

A team built around Nicky

Adi Dulgheru, the new director of log purchasing for the entire Group, had started his activity in Vienna in 2006 and was working since March 2007 in Sebeș, at the first sawmill the Schweighofer Group has opened in Romania, in 2003. “When I came to Rădăuți and I started working here, I knew that was the moment of a new team created around Nicky, who could prove they were the best, as we were in permanent competition with the team in Sebeș. I wanted to perfect myself and improve my performances so that I can develop myself professionally within the company/group, which in the end came to fruition.”

Paul Bălan is Head of IT for Holzindustrie Schweighofer in Romania and has kept an eye on the digital security of the company even before the new building was inaugurated. “For me, the first working day in the new office building lasted about 26 hours,” he remembers. “I started work at 4 in the morning and I finished the following morning, at about 6AM! Practically, the entire infrastructure for the servers, working stations, equipment and peripherals had to be moved, they all needed to be interconnected and synchronised, and I was the one and only employee of the department! The entire operation was a success, at the end of the working hours all services were operational.”

Log purchasing manager Vasile Varvaroi remembers that, when he first stepped foot in the new office building, he felt ‘at home’. “That really was a new concept for us, the idea of ‘open space’, the fact that we were all together, in one place, made us all fell like a family,” he says. “We were all very young, with an average age of 20 something years, so we created bonds rather quickly.” The building and the space were something no one had seen at that time, while the open space concept was a novelty for all colleagues, according to the other log purchasing manager, Ionuț Avram. “The company was promoting a western mentality, an open one, which was new to us; moreover, our opinions mattered and were considered.”

For Gabriel Ene, the other mill manager, “the opportunity of working in a team like the one in Rădăuți materialised itself on two levels. After family, it is the biggest achievement for a young engineer, eager to perfect and perform in what he studied – turning raw matter into superior, high added value products, made for some of the most demanding. Because here, in Rădăuți, do what we know best: Perfection in timber!”

Human Resources manager Sorina Răuțu has occupied the same area in the office from the very beginning, because “I got attached to the place and the things surrounding me and I love it when everything is in its place. I remember the first tour of the sawmill – the size of the plant seemed impressive! The cutting hall is particularly dazzling, especially when you see the technology, when you see the command board with all the pretty monitors.”

Adds accountant Brîndușa Moruz: “My first impression was even greater than what I was expecting from a multinational. I had hoped of working for a company where I could contribute to its development, and I found a team like abroad.”

The time legal specialist Cristiana Romaniuc joined the company coincided with the moving of the offices. “I managed to go to the old offices for just three days, out of which I spent one day moving to the new headquarter. I remember that, when I got in the new building, they were putting up the access system, and the engineer installing it was a former high school colleague!” she says.

Regardless of the first impressions of some of the people who have stood the test of time, what remains is the impact this investment has had when it was completed, in a disadvantaged environment and community. “I wanted, towards the end of my career, to be able to drive my son on the road to the mill and proudly show him ‘an industrial complex in whose construction I played a part as well’,” says Nicky, admitting that he has lived the feeling that he was part of something that will last for future generations when, in 2008, he found out that the mill in Rădăuți was the most modern production facility in the world, and one of the largest greenfield projects in Romania.

2008, the onset of the economic crisis in Romania and challenges that followed

The year 2008 meant the beginning of the crisis in Romania, but in Rădăuți it meant the start of the adventure which this year celebrates a decade of operations. Stretching over 50 hectares and with a cutting capacity of 1.45 million cubic metres in 2017, the mill has faced, over time, countless challenges that have, in turn, reinforced characters and strengthened bonds. With all the hurdles that the entire economy has had to jump through, just this May the mill has introduced a one-shift model for cutting operations, while the post and beams production continues in three shifts. The company’s explicit aim was - and still - is to maintain the mill’s efficiency and competitiveness.

For Paul, the biggest challenges in these past ten years were the moments before all became operational, when resources were rather limited and everything was done at a speed of light, but any problem had to have a solution. “For me, one of the biggest challenges in the past ten years has been the change of the ERP system in all the units of the group, a mandatory operation, as a new factory – the one in Reci – had joined the group. The existing ERP did not allow the attachment of a new entity because of technical limitations, but the company needed a solution.” Together with the management in Vienna, a decision was taken to install the Timbertec ERP, which is in operation in present times as well.

“I have faced challenges every day since I got a job here. Maybe that’s why I love what I do,” says Vasile.

Gabriel says he had a lot to learn in the management area. “The company invests a lot in training its personnel, trusts its employees and offered me the chance to develop professionally. Thus, if at the beginning I got hired in the sales department, through the trust the management has shown towards me I subsequently became production manager of one of the most modern sawmills in the world at that time. It’s not easy, but together, with passion, we can overcome any obstacle that may come our way.”

The biggest challenge for Brîndușa was “to be able to answer all demands. I am proud to be part of a team which has managed to keep the company on a competitive level. I believed in the future of this company and it didn’t let me down; it gave me safety when the country was governed by crisis and incertitude.”

The job at the sawmill in Rădăuți is her first job, but economist Lenuța Nițu managed to be involved in almost all new tasks her department has had to solve. “I wanted to give my best from the very beginning, and I gave my heart and soul to the development of the company. Over these past ten years there have been many challenges, I can’t chose any particular one,” she says. “I always liked to find a solution to any challenge together with my colleagues and I never gave up (the company was, practically, a second family to me). I really learned a lot during these times and I gained a lot of experience – from this point of view I am proud that I worked for the company for all this time.”

Aware that what counts the most is loving what one does, so that one likes coming to work each day, Sorina has found this in Holzindustrie Schweighofer Rădăuți. “My biggest challenge was recruiting workers for the expansion of the planing hall – the post and beams part; we managed to hire a very large number of people then, in a very short period of time: 300 employees in just six months, more precisely, half of the mill’s staff!” remembers the Human Resources manager.

Nicky concludes: “Compared to 2008 we are in a whole other era! We now have an experienced team, performing machines and we implemented policies and procedures.”

In some cases, truth is stranger than fiction

When everything starts from scratch, it’s almost impossible not to live situations or be part of events that you can later in your life tell your grandkids…

Nicky and Giorgio ‘are discussing’ for a few years now. It’s more of a bickering scenario. “For example,” remembers Nicky, “we were running against the clock to complete works on The Gerald’s Hotel and its parking lot, with over 150 people working on the hotel while Giorgio and I were verifying how the green spaces were laid out. I know that I noticed some things not being right and I argued with my colleague, who then left a bit upset. In the evening, on my way home, I thought of going back to the parking lot and see if they had done anything about what I noticed, but when I got there I found Giorgio with his kid, discussing ways to redo the works. I was profoundly impressed with his degree of involvement and I thought of how lucky we were to have people like Giorgio working alongside us.”

Giorgio replies: “Ehehe, I won several bets against Nicky!”

Contradictions or not, there is a person in the Rădăuți team who, through his pick-me-up spirit and very developed sense of humour can lighten the day for his colleagues. Paul says he is “guilty” of many pranks and keeps a comprehensive archive of all the funny moments he staged over the years. “I remember, for example, that even from the beginning of the construction works, we had a very bragging colleague: Jean – the firefighter,” remembers the Head of IT. “A beautiful person, as a matter of fact, with whom we all worked excellently, but who did not lose any opportunity to brag about the way the fire protection area looked , every time he had new hires. That is until, one day, I made a metallic shelf, covered it with a traditional table cloth, small țuică shot glasses (all different) and a bottle of whiskey filled with coloured tea, just like the original. One morning, our Jean gathered around 30 new employees around the fire hydrant and, when he was about to open its door…what do you know? He shut it down quickly and hurried the new colleagues towards the next point of interest.”

Before starting production in the current location, Holzindustrie Schweighofer had opened a log purchasing collecting point in Dornești, which is just outside Rădăuți. “When the mill started operating in the current location, many people were under the impression that Dornești is the correct location,” remembers Ionuț. “Trucks were sent there, even at the official opening of the mill some people wanted to go to Dornești instead of Rădăuți…,” remembers Ionuț.

“My funny-nostalgic moment is ‘older’ than the office building itself, it is, however, connected to my first interview with Gerald Schweighofer,” remembers Vasile, smiling. “It was the morning of September 8, 2006, when Maria, my first child, decided it was the perfect moment for her to come into this world, a bit…. surprisingly and without prior notice. She probably didn’t know that on that particular day I had scheduled my first interview with Gerald Schweighofer himself, who was waiting for me at the old headquarter in Rădăuți. I was a bit hindered by the overlapping of the two events, but I did everything in my power to be there where I was needed and when I was needed. After making sure everything was in order at the maternity ward, I rushed to Rădăuți, it wasn’t like I didn’t have an interview scheduled just before lunch with a person who had innovated the wood processing industry in Europe and the entire world! I got to Rădăuți just a few minutes later than scheduled, but I felt the need to apologize. However, as my English was pretty weak, instead of explaining to Gerald that I just had my first child, I uttered something along the lines of ‘please excuse my tardiness, but this morning I had to make a baby for the first time’.”

For the mill manager in Rădăuți, the plant has a special symbolism, it’s his ‘child’. “As I was the first one employed on this former ‘swamp’, I feel like a founding father,” concludes Nicky. “I feel connected through an ‘umbilical’ cord to the people working here, to all we did on this industrial platform. What have I learned? That team work is the only way complex projects come into being, one can only do meager things by oneself, with no real impact on the community and the economy. I am honored to work alongside some extraordinary colleagues, and this is my ultimate reward.”