The region’s furniture maker is overwhelmed by British orders: ten people are immediately hired Business

Do you know the difference between “Lithuanian” and “English” drawers? According to representatives of the furniture manufacturing company NS2, “English” must be opened so that one can feel it.

They know what they are talking about. 2003 The furniture manufacturing company located in the village of Semeniškės, Grendave Elderly, started its activity from 40 pieces of furniture per week and from export to the UK.

Originally made from cabinet, bedroom, and living room furniture, however, trends have changed over time. Today, furniture manufacturers no longer use as much pure oak as they used to; their prices have risen significantly, so now oak veneer panels are more popular in production.

“The main furniture is in the bedroom. At the beginning, the volumes were about 40 pieces of furniture per week, today we produce 70 per day. During those 18 years, everything was, a lot changed, there was a time when there were no orders, but most of the time there were enough orders ”, said the shareholder of the company Laurynas Noreika.

Today, the company employs almost a hundred people.

The chosen commercial strategy allows them not to look too much at the Lithuanian buyer. NS2 sells only 1% of the local market through its Vilnius showroom. production, the rest is exported. The group operates four companies in various cities of the country.

Also, unlike the country’s leading furniture manufacturers, NS2 does not have production contracts with Ikea, the largest customer for local furniture manufacturers.

“They are our own furniture, the furniture of our designers and the production rights belong to us. In England, we sell through private shops. The customer comes to them, places orders, we receive the order and we try to fulfill it within a period of time. six to eight weeks, ”he said.

Of course, these terms are only valid in normal years. During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, production stalled significantly due to a three-month break in work. So now the number of furniture orders is much higher than the company can fulfill, production is delayed by 10-11 weeks.

“We have doubled the prices of our products this year, in March and now as of September. We are forced to increase them, because today the challenge is not to sell, but to present the orders previously received to the customer without incurring losses, because the matter Premium sometimes gets more expensive, ”said Gintaras Michalkevičius, the company’s production manager.

NS2 reps say they are now trying to negotiate order prices, but this is not always the case. Rapidly increase furniture prices as raw materials become more expensive, they say they can’t.

However, in general, furniture manufacturers do not complain about the volume; According to them, today there is a similar situation in all companies in the furniture sector. One of the possible reasons for the situation has been heard many times: people who stayed at home during the quarantine saved money, could not go on vacation, so they wanted to spend it to return their home.

“Currently, there is no competition in the furniture sector. Everyone has a job and no one to compete with. But such a situation is now, how long it will last, nobody knows, ”said G. Michelkevičius.

He adds that in terms of orders, this year has been “one of the best” in the history of the company.

Furniture manufacturer crises have a different schedule

In difficult times, companies often do not operate in the same way as the rest of the Lithuanian economy. As the majority of its exports go to the UK, the company accounted for the majority of its exports in 2007-2008. lived through the financial crisis quite comfortably.

“2008 there was no crisis for us. They were all, and not us, because we were working in the English market. We cannot say that we are happy when there is a crisis in Lithuania, but then there are more people who want to work. For us it is important that there is no crisis in England. “It was more difficult to survive Brexit and all its consequences, because the pound depreciated and we had to raise prices to compensate for the losses,” says Noreika.

After the UK’s secession from the EU, the number of additional customs procedures and declarations increased, but despite the higher prices, the order volume did not decrease.

“Lithuania’s politics and economy affect us only in terms of labor or raw material supply,” says L. Noreika.

According to the Foreign Office, furniture, bedding and mattresses are the largest export of products of Lithuanian origin to the UK. 2020 this category accounted for 16 percent. of all Lithuanian exports to the UK, and in 2019 it reached even more: 20 percent.

However, to please archipelago buyers, we have to go the extra mile: British taste is different from Lithuanian. L.Noreika says that furniture in demand in the UK has more classic elements, they are brighter, bigger, more massive. Lithuanians, for their part, prefer simplicity and functionality. This is why the company designs furniture for English designers, as they better understand the needs of UK consumers.

“We even had a collection where we sprayed the so-called masculine white powder to make the furniture look aged. Lithuania needs the drawer bar to fit well, and the English should hear it open. They just have a different culture. Of course, there is a group of Lithuanians who want to buy something different from us, ”says G. Michalkevičius.

Not only in Lithuania there are not only markets and designers from NS2, but also raw materials. The Grendave furniture factory uses a small amount of Lithuanian oak, all other raw materials are imported.

“In principle, we buy raw materials from Lithuanian companies that are intermediaries. And they probably already bring them from Poland. There was a time when we used a lot of oak, then the main market was Ukraine. Oak wood became very expensive and the customer did not want to pay as much. Now a layer of real oak 0.5 to 1 mm thick is placed on the board and the surface looks like oak, ”says L. Noreika.

At least ten employees would be hired immediately.

However, although Grendava’s company has created something of a business bubble in almost two decades, the processes taking place in Lithuania also affect her work. Like other Lithuanian companies, today it is difficult for a company to find both qualified people and people who want to work in general. An increased number of employees would also help solve current problems of production delays.

“It just came to our attention then. We are striving to establish long-term cooperation with people expelled from the Employment Service. Employees must seek other resources. We are talking with existing employees to possibly bring relatives here, acquaintances, there are also people who they return from abroad who are employed for a longer period of time, ”said L. Noreika.

Grendavė is about 50 kilometers from Vilnius, so some potential employees from the surrounding area travel to the capital. However, although salaries are higher in Vilnius, time costs and car expenses contribute, so some of them return later to work at NS2.

These managers view this quite flexibly and are often happy to accept former employees who have returned from other cities or from abroad. There are those who have been recruited 3-4 times.

NS2 is reluctant to use the strategy of other companies and manufacturing sectors to close the gap with foreign workers. Such procedures are not straightforward, as a commitment to employ a foreigner is required first, but their ability can only be remotely assessed.

“You can only chat through Zoom and hear what they have to say. And they speak very well. There have been tests of this type, not in this company, but in another company related to us. Today, one in three or four Ukrainians he has left and the others have left voluntarily or at our request ”, said L. Noreika.

Not many resources can be found on the site. Company representatives say they have seen more than one case where people who appear to be able to work prefer not to work because of benefits.

“I have been working here for fifteen years, I know these very bald people. People receive unemployment benefits for months and in rural areas they still have a large number of bailiffs. They say: It is not worth working because I will still deduct my salary. We say that he will still have to return it, but he does not think so, “says G. Michelkevičius.

L. Noreika adds that not everyone can expect high wages in production: some employees must be qualified, others have the role of auxiliaries. It is the auxiliary workers who tend to use benefits more and are not motivated to work if they can only get € 100 more while they work.

Still, employers say they cannot pay more to people who perform these functions. It is not about finances. The production manager says that a person who wants a good salary must meet expectations.

“If you can just stand in front of the machine and grasp the details, we cannot offer you a big salary. But we have jobs and we can pay a salary of 1000 euros and more. We need CNC machine operators, we can accept them, but we cannot find staff. qualified, “said G. Michelkevičius.

Increased automation, which could replace human labor, would not solve the employee shortage: the company’s customers order furniture in small quantities, so the higher level of robotization of “NS2” production would not work.