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“I won the greatest battle. We will build a factory like never dreamed of.” Thus begins the realization of a great plan. These were the words that the Timisoara industrialist, Blaziu Guban, said to his son, Tiberiu, in 1953. The Caballero had just returned from the capital, where he had had long conversations with the communist authorities, from whom he had received permission and support to build his headquarters, a factory that had previously consisted of several rented apartments in the block in which he lived. Guban had gained fame in the country for their high-quality shoe care products, cream and wax, however Guban planned to diversify his production (he wanted to take off his shoes on the treadmill) and for that he needed a proper location.
At the heart of communist society, this industrialist was only prospering. A master of persuasion, Guban fantasized more than anyone else about the communist yoke. His entrepreneurial spirit came out most clearly in 1948, when nationalization completely abolished the category of industrialists. Although all Romanian affairs passed into the hands of the state, Guban remained a heavy man: owner! He managed to postpone the authorities for four years, until 1952, when the inevitable happened.
But where others thought that nothing could be done, Guban did not give up one or two and went to the negotiating table. He realized that the authorities had to be convinced that the factory would continue to prosper, but not with anyone in charge, but only with him, a self-taught chemist, for whom no production process had secrets. He managed to obtain a more than advantageous contract under the conditions of that time: he donated the factory to the state, which, in turn, had to leave him in charge for life and seriously invest in the development of the factory. The Guban chemical plants became the state-owned industrial company of the Bela Breiner Timişoara chemical and shoe factory. Later, in 1963, the company name changed again: Victoria Factory of Footwear and Plastics. However, the brand remained, the products were still inscribed “Guban”.
Tiberiu Guban was his father’s right hand man in his factory in Timisoara and managed to lead him; PHOTO: Mediafax
“I am a specialist in the rubber industry”
The Communists kept their promise to Guban, but they kept a close eye on him, especially since he often traveled abroad to display his products and then, after 1959, to be inspired by new models. footwear. The Timisoara resident traveled all over Europe, he was in Budapest, Paris, Prague, Vienna, Zurich and Basel.
He was shown to be under the Communists’ lens, for example on a trip to Germany in 1958, when Blaziu and Tiberiu Guban, along with a factory employee, Dumitru Popa, a tire specialist, went to the large German factories to seek inspiration for the latest trends. as for leather and footwear. The first stop was at a hotel in the city of Krefeld, where a character whose name remained in bold in Romanian history appeared before them: Ion Mihai Pacepa, then deputy of the Romanian Mission in the Federal Republic of Germany and head of the spy residence in Bonn. “Mr. Guban, my name is Ion Mihai Pacepa and the Ministry of Industry is sending me to accompany you. I know you are in the car. I am a specialist in the rubber industry, just like Comrade Popa,” the service man introduced himself. As recalled in 2014, for “Adevărul”, Tiberiu Guban, son of the industrialist, former chemical engineer.
Photo: Blaziu Guban has developed his business of selling shoe care products; Source: profit.ro
The case of the lost suitcases
Upon arriving at the hotel room, the son confessed to his father that he had reservations about the new travel companion, but Guban senior did not mind that opinion at all. If Pacepa was sent from the ministry, then he could come. Other discussions made no sense, he said.
The next day, her son’s fears would prove well founded. Before leaving for Marl, where they were going to visit the Hüls plants, one of the suitcases left in front of the reception desk disappeared. From the hotel, Tiberiu Guban surprised Pacepa walking away. She went to him and asked him if he knew anything. The answer surprised him: he had taken it, for fear that someone would steal it. “I don’t know who could have stolen it from the reception, where the hotel employees were. I told him to bring my luggage immediately, which he did. Pacepa and Popa wanted to stay in Krefeld, and we will see each other again after the visit,” Tiberiu Guban explained.
In Marl, the two lost a suitcase again. They called the hotel in Krefeld, where they were told that they had forgotten a bag in the room. When they recovered it, they discovered that the luggage had been searched. “I already knew we had a thief with us,” said Guban’s son.
The last visit was to Frankfurt, to the Höchst factory, where they were accompanied by Popa and Pacepa and from where they returned with extensive documentation. At night, when they were staying at a motel in Fulda, a small town 80 kilometers from Frankfurt, they discovered they were back in the lurch with a suitcase. This time, a sensitive point had been reached: it was one of Blaziu’s suitcases. On it were two new English cloth clothes, several shirts, two new pairs of shoes, and, most importantly, the materials they had taken from Höchst. “I was very upset that I didn’t tie the luggage to the hood properly and I probably lost it on the way.” Popa and I returned to Frankfurt to look for the suitcase everywhere. It was important, because it was factory documents. I didn’t find anything, “said the industrialist’s son.
As the prosperity of the companies was at stake, the father and son presented themselves to the German authorities to claim the disappearance of the luggage. It was useless. Instead, a police officer asked him to send Pacepa to come and extend his expired residence visa. They just didn’t know where Pacepa might be. Only he always knew where they were. Before returning to the country, the father and son visited a Neckermann store, one of the companies that set the standard for fashion in Europe at the time. Here, Tiberiu Guban again caught the ministry envoy spying on him. He tugged on his father’s sleeve and they disappeared into one of the emergency exits. After this episode, they immediately returned to the country.
Upon returning to Romania, Blaziu Guban could not escape the feeling of having been betrayed. He called Alexandru Sencovici, the then Minister of Industry, with whom he knew well. He reproached them not only that they had been searched, but also that this work had been left to a bandit. “My father kept telling me that he was disappointed that they didn’t trust us and put spies on our path, even though we produced tremendous values for the country.” He was upset by the fire, “Tiberiu Guban also said. Sencovici promised to receive compensation. But the valuable documentation from the German factory cannot be compensated for anything.
If anyone in this country touches the Guban family, they will be dealing with me!
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
Gheorghiu-Dej Hugs
To this day, the purpose for which Pacepa was traced back to Guban is unknown. It is sure that they had no other problems, the factory ran smoothly and the praise of the authorities was chained. They were well founded, especially since most of Guban’s production was exported. On the occasion of a visit to the factory in Timisoara, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej himself decreed: “If someone from this country touches the Guban family, they will have to deal with me!”
The two Timisoara residents enjoyed the warmth of the communists, even sometimes. When the son went to introduce himself to the communist leader, holding out his hand, he took him in his arms. “I held out my hand and told him that I was the engineer Tiberiu Guban. He did not shake my hand, but he took me in his arms and told me that I should not appear before him,” the chemical engineer told Mediafax in 2013.
But there were also figures who wanted to remind the producers in Timisoara that, in fact, they own nothing. Tiberiu Guban was talking, for example, about a visit he made to the Minister of Industry in Bucharest in 1957. At the end of the discussion, he threw some bills on the official’s desk after discovering where his trouser belt came from. “He said: ‘Don’t get me wrong, you take a spool of thread, even an empty one, from the factory. It is not allowed». Then I took the receipt and threw it in front of him, saying: “It cost 28 lei, are you satisfied now? “I didn’t take an inch from the factory.”
In the 1990s, Tiberiu Guban was expelled from the factory.
The factory continued to prosper, constantly diversifying its offering. In addition to footwear and footwear products, plastics, various accessories, such as belts, furniture and chandeliers, also appeared on the production line. Not only Blaziu Guban’s intelligence and effort, but also that of his son contributed to such expansion. Graduated in chemistry, Tiberius followed in his father’s footsteps, quickly becoming an expert chemical engineer. His contribution exceeded all expectations: while working at the factory, he obtained more than 20 patents. An example: in 1956, he created artificial leather, without which Guban’s shoes would not have been the same. In 1978, when Blaziu Guban died, his son was in charge of the factory. He directed production with the same determined hand as his father, until 1992, when he retired. From that point on, the founders of the factory were no longer important to the directors who followed them. “Do you know what the satisfaction was after the Revolution? In 1992, when I wanted to enter the factory, the then director prohibited me. They told me that I was no longer allowed …”, said, disappointed, the son of the great industrialist .
After the Revolution, the factory gradually stopped producing, today it only deals with the creation of women’s shoes. In 1992, when Guban’s successor was unable to enter the factory, the company was still state-owned. It was privatized three years later, using the MEBO method, and employees joined together to buy it. The factory also changed its name, currently known as SC GP & Company SA and belonging to an Italian group of companies.
Do you know what the satisfaction was after the Revolution? In 1992, when I wanted to enter the factory, the then director prohibited me. They told me they wouldn’t allow me …
Tiberius Guban
What Elena Ceausescu set her feet on
Photo: Elena Ceauşescu received preferential treatment: her shoes were made to order; Source: Romanian Communism Online Photo Library
In 1959, the gubans were a resounding success, which would put their name on the lips of all Romanians: they launched the first pair of shoes. All kinds of personalities came to wear shoes made in Timisoara, from communist leaders such as Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and Elena Ceausescu, to opponents of the communist regime, such as King Michael, to men of letters, including the poet Tudor Arghezi. . International figures, such as Italian actress Sophia Loren, were also present on the client list.
The country’s first partner received preferential treatment. For her, the shoes were designed differently than those of the regular production, according to the models she saw in the German magazines “Quelle” and “Neckermann”. “Luxury shoes, in a more special way,” said Tiberiu Guban. The shoes were made by his father, and the local skin was colored by him, always in pastel shades. Elena Ceausescu’s favorites: duck egg, cognac, varnish and rose.
The first steps in business, after a salary increase
The recipe for the success of the Guban brand was a combination of intelligence and ambition, quite a man, who only had that when he was born. Blaziu Guban built the business through hard work, although his fate had not given him much, launching it into the world in 1904, in Gurbediu, a village in Bihor. However, it gave him a little boost shortly after his birth, when he was adopted by an Oradea family. Here he was able to go to school, but only for five years, during which time he managed to penetrate some of the mysteries of writing and reading. It was not his fault, but the poverty in which he lived: from second grade he had to become a pig keeper.
World War I surprised him as an employee of the Derby boot factory in Oradea, where the first flashes of the young Blaziu’s mind came to light. He began to follow the manufacturing process very closely, how the substances were combined and how the materials were joined. Years later, when Guban was at his best, the opportunity arose to demonstrate that his fascination with the factory process also translated into practice. In 1932, the factory owner received a visit from the director of the Filt Factory in Timisoara. He was looking for a good chemist, and Guban was the right man. His entrepreneurial spirit saw the opportunity, so he set the conditions: Guban agreed to go to Timisoara, but only if they offered him a salary of 4,500 lei per month, a generous amount at the time. Said and done. Shortly after arriving in the capital of Banat, he requested a salary increase, which soon appeared. Guban now earns 6,000 lei. He had big plans for his savings.
Photo: Guban boot cream, an exceptional product; Source: the truth
Shoe cream recipe, created in the kitchen
At night after the show, when he got home, the chemist wouldn’t leave his job at the door. Rather, he left room for them at the kitchen table. This is where the first product of the Guban brand was born: shoe cream. He carefully placed it in metal boxes of other products, from which he removed the inscriptions by rubbing them with caustic soda. In the morning, Blaziu Guban took their boxes to work and distributed them free of charge to workers to taste the cream. He just woke up with praise. Soon, he realized: it was time to start his own business. It didn’t take long and the cooking workshop wasn’t long enough, with Guban expanding to various apartments in the building where he lived, according to his son.
Thus, in 1937, the name of a new company appeared in the Commercial Register: Uzinele Chimice Guban Timişoara, where the cream was made regularly. But there was another problem: the high-quality cream needed a custom package. Guban went to the Mecher brothers’ factory, where he ordered 5,000 boxes. However, it was not profitable for merchants to create a mold for such a small series, so they suggested they take 100,000 boxes. Blaziu did not hesitate, he knew this was the case in business. He took on debts and then paid them for sales, which grew in increasing numbers. One of the reasons why Guban managed to create such a brand was because he was fascinated by the processes by which his products were born. It is shown, for example, by the fact that he spent 25 years studying the action of his cream on shoes, constantly working on the recipe to increase the durability of footwear.
What was chosen from the Guban factory after the Revolution.
In the first years after the Revolution, the factory, renamed by the state in 1990, SC Guban SA, had to start with the left. In the turmoil of the young free market, there have been a number of problems with the law. It all started shortly after the privatization on August 2, 1995, when the contract of sale of the State Property Fund (FPS) was concluded. As a result of this process, 1,047 employees became shareholders. Soon, however, some of them would break ranks. At the end of the series of illegalities was a union leader, Vasile Păiuş, who, although he had no official capacity, convened on May 30, 1995, the General Assembly of Associates of PAS (without Employee Shareholder Program), managing to become In charge of factory management, after as reported by HotNews in 2005. At the same meeting, it was decided to redistribute the shares, an illegal move by which most employees were deprived of the shares they had legally purchased. They filed a lawsuit, but despite the favorable decision, they were simply ignored.
A single vote
Thus, in 1998, with the support of the group that had coagulated around him, Vasile Păiuş became president of the PAS Guban Association, naming Victor Fluşiu as director general of the unit. To get rid of any problems, including the obligation to compensate former employees, the two ordered that they be denied access to the factory. For a clean appointment of Fluşiu, Păiuş convened the ninth meeting of the PAS Association. However, the quorum was not met. Without hesitation, he proceeded to resolve the situation on his own, that is, vote for himself, on behalf of all shareholders. Although met with the categorical rejection of the censorship commission, the president of the association openly challenged them, using a false power of attorney to vote.
Null documents
From then on, any document issued by the factory in Timisoara was null and void, prosecutors told HotNews. Even if employees had given Păiuş a power of attorney, this would not have been supported by the legislation. The factory employees would take down this two-headed gentleman, who acted so wildly. They couldn’t bear to see the decline of the unit. Subsequently, at the request of employees, the Directorate General of Public Finance (DGFP) initiated a detailed check, to find out how much the Păiuş and Fleşiu laws had falsified. In 2001, the media announced the arrests on top of the factory. “Adevărul”, for example, entitled: “The general manager and union leader of Guban Timişoara, in police custody.” Vasile Păiuş, Victor Fluşiu and other employees with whom they had been hand in hand were charged with office abuse, embezzlement, falsification and misuse of company credit and assets.
The old factory was demolished
In 2016 the headquarters of the Guban factory on Boulevard de los Héroes de Tisza (photo above), where the pairs of shoes that delighted an entire Romania came from, were demolished. The activity continued in a single body of the building, which was reserved, during communism, for offices. He did not enter the demolition plan because he had other owners, he wrote “Adevărul” in the same year. Meanwhile, the shoes were made two kilometers from the old place, in a new headquarters, in Calea Stan Vidrighin no. 22. However, the body of the building on the boulevard was not deserted, being today the Guban presentation store in Timişoara.
The Tiberiu Guban trials
From the family factory, Tiberiu Guban was left alone with the memories PHOTO Adevărul
After the Revolution, Tiberiu Guban also spent his time visiting the courts. He sued the factory owners for the fraudulent use of the brand that bears his name. In 2002, the court ruled that Guban’s name could no longer be used without the consent of the heir. A decision apparently does not matter to the factory owners, who did not find it appropriate to make any changes.
Three years later, the industrialist’s son took another step in court and demanded 39 billion lei in compensation for “abusive use of the brand.” “Tiberiu Gasparik Guban is the son of Blaziu Guban, who founded the Guban factory. As an heir, he is entitled to compensation because his name is used as a trademark by the Guban factory. Guban SA’s income between 1991 and 2003 is approximately 390 billion lei. We asked for 39 billion lei because they used the name Guban during this period, “said attorney Florin Kovacs, quoted in HotNews in 2005.
How is it possible that someone today uses their name, their surname? I can say that all our work has been in vain.
Tiberius Guban
Analysis and reinterpretations.
The heir did not receive his compensation, and the factory, later called the SC GP Company, still uses the brand today. Changing the name of the factory was enough, said one of the three directors at the time, Gheorghe Petru, who said he was willing to stop using the brand, which would not affect sales. “The factory was named Guban SA in 1990, by government decision. Tiberiu Guban should have sued the state, which gave it that name. We renounce the brand if he wants it, we give him the Guban brand to do what he wants with The problem is, he wants money for something he doesn’t deserve, “said Peter. The fact that the brand has lasted over time has nothing to do with the Guban family, according to factory management. They stated, unilaterally and without testimony, that Blaziu was an illegal communist, but also a former cellmate of Dej’s.
“They stole all the time”
Guban’s successor achieved nothing. However, in September 2004, the Timiş Court ruled in his favor, forcing the company to pay non-material damages of 100 million lei. The former chemical engineer finally lost the fight because he could no longer afford the lawyers. He only had the pension left, with a value of 2,200 lei, as he explained, in 2014, for “Adevărul”. “My father left the factory at an incredible level. After his death, all sorts of incompetent directors were named. There were 16 directors who were only interested in stealing. They stole all the time. I didn’t get anything back. How is it possible that Does anyone today use their first name, their last name? I can say that all our work has been in vain. ”
A return
Although Tiberiu Guban was unable to recover any of his father’s inheritance, the factory was recovered from 2004, when he began to make a profit. However, the lucky year for the new SC GP Company was 2013, when it went through a process of massive investment of hundreds of thousands of euros. New stores were opened and the shoes even reached some of the country’s shopping centers. For the renovation of the production line, for example, two collections were created: Clasic Guban Timişoara and Guban No.1. Exports also resumed, with the Guban brand reaching Poland, Canada, Italy, Switzerland and Slovenia.
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