The quarantine had to go through downtime, but the development did not stop: it will invest millions, create another 250 jobs

The “Monetary Affairs” program spoke of companies that have not set foot in quarantine: additional planned investments and creation of new jobs. One such company is Hella Lithuania, which plans to invest tens of millions of euros in development and create some 250 new jobs in the coming years.

The first quarantine entered downtime

Mantas Skinder, project implementation and change management manager at Hella Lithuania, said on the show that the company relies on major automakers. The prevailing uncertainty and the closure of car factories also adjusted Hella Lithuania’s work.

“Some closed for two weeks, others closed for up to six weeks. As a result, we also had to suspend our activities. Due to the fact that all the orders that were received were so small that it would not have been profitable for the company to operate.

We had a situation where manufacturers of certain electronic components based in northern Italy faced the biggest pandemic. They were forced to close in exactly the same way. This has adjusted the performance of many of the major manufacturers, not only in the automotive industry, but in all electronics, as the market has started to lack components. Therefore, our company Hella Lietuva has announced both partial and complete downtimes, depending on the department where people work, ”said M. Skinder.

According to him, although a second quarantine is currently being introduced, there is more clarity than in spring.

“The first wave for both us and other manufacturers, the entire automobile industry was a real uncertainty, nobody knew how to act here, what will happen in a week, what will happen in two. In this case, in the second quarantine, we have the opposite situation.

Beginning in the second half of July, in August, we have seen a significant recovery in the numbers of the automotive industry, especially September, which for many car manufacturers, as well as electronic component manufacturers, was almost equal to or even higher to record months. This situation is a little different. (…) Perhaps the situation is not improving enough to compensate for the losses lost in the spring, but the market tends to show that the situation is improving and it is the opposite of the first quarantine, ”says Skinder.

However, it is added that this is not the time to relax and rejoice.

“This uncertainty is increasingly evident, because the quarantine has returned not only to Lithuania, but also to the main European countries, to countries where there are also car manufacturers, where there are component manufacturers. This again raises some concerns that the situation could get significantly worse in the coming weeks, “he said.

The implemented projects and contracts led to the development

According to Skinder, development continues for a number of reasons. First, it enables the long-term established business strategy to be carried out. Already in 2018. In July, when starting operations in Lithuania, it was decided that the company had the potential to grow.

“During those two years, Hella Lietuva employees have shown that Hellai has great potential in Lithuania. We have very quickly mastered many strategic projects with sufficiently complex products, we started their series production, and many of the major car manufacturers have confirmed us as official suppliers.

This allows the group of companies to assume that we have the potential to grow and to keep up with the growth rates that are planned, we need to start building additional production facilities now. We need to start with a new office space to really ensure that growth for both our sales and our team. Everyone has a place to have and if the office is already crowded and the future shows that it will be even more crowded, it has been decided that now is the time to invest, start construction, double the available premises of 11 thousand. kv. meters at 22 thousand. square meters, ”said Skinder.

It emphasizes the need to distinguish between calculated investments, some for construction, some for equipment, office and laboratory equipment,

“This is a double digit million dollar investment. As of now, I cannot name the exact number. This investment will not only double our existing production facilities and our entire factory area, but as you may have heard, it will also increase the number of employees ”, says M. Skinder.

The pandemic and quarantine have forced manufacturers to reconsider their structure due to problems in the logistics chain. There are even ideas that European producers will try to move their production from Asia to Europe to bring things closer together. However, Hella Lithuania’s Manager of Project Implementation and Change Management assures that this development is not related to the closure of the plant in another part of the group.

“We are really trying to localize those supply chains as much as possible so that the component manufacturers supply in the same region, the components for Europe are produced in Europe, for Asia, in Asia.” The Hella Group’s own electronics business unit has been growing, which is visible not only in Lithuania, but also elsewhere. Hella has more than 120 worldwide and employs more than 36,000 people. employees at the moment, but that growth in Lithuania is not about giving up something that already exists. The aim is simply to supply the market with new innovative components that will be manufactured in Lithuania and this requires new investments ”, he clarified.

Finding employees is difficult not to

According to Skinder, there are still no big problems finding employees. Recruitment hasn’t stopped this year either.

“The company has never stopped looking for those people, reviewing that history since 2017, when our company was founded, it has been joined by at least one new employee every month. Sure, we had a little stoppage during the quarantine related to some of the company’s suspended activities, but despite that quarantine period, at least one person joined each month. We even had months where 12 new people joined in a month. Even now, if you look at the open positions in Hella Lietuva companies, you will see that there are at least 8 or even more. This tendentious growth of the company has always been visible from the beginning ”, said the interlocutor.

He called for a wide range of professionals: from engineers to take care of production processes to workers to take care of the supply chain.

“It just came to our knowledge then. In certain positions, of course, more or less of them, but we always find the right employees who match the advertising and professional competencies of our team. We give priority to the Lithuanian employees, but never We say no to foreign employees. Now in our team about 4 percent. of the nearly 200 employees are foreign. The average age of our company is young enough, the average age is about 33. 60 percent. the company’s employees are men, 40 percent women, which in my opinion is an incredibly good number in an engineering manufacturing company, ”said Hella Lithuania’s Project Implementation and Change Management Manager about the employees. .

According to Sodra, the company currently has 173 employees, the average salary on paper in October was 3,563 euros, in September – 2,120 euros.

Skinder added that construction had also started. They are scheduled for completion next summer.