Talking to Adrian Echert on 10 years of Wood-Mizer Romania

"The most important thing that we should start with is that this year is the 10th anniversary of Wood-Mizer Romania. With that in mind, we are working to make this year a special one." Adrian Echert was the first employee of Wood-Mizer Romania 10 years ago. Even if he doesn't show it, you can feel the pride of the man who hasn't just been sitting idle for the last 10 years, but even more, he built the Romanian branch of a multinational company and is now the manager of this branch. He was 22 when he was recruited and was the only employee for about a year and a half. Wood-Mizer either had a very good recruiting team or great luck. "We started in 2008, in the middle of the crisis. It was hard, but we could only go up. There was no way down. We grew from €500,000-600,000/year in the early years to €1.2-1.5 mil/year today. The growth was not smooth, it was fluctuating. Record annual sales were €2.2 mil."

When Wood Mizer Romania was established there were two representatives selling Wood-Mizer products in the country. In recent years they have started building their own network of agents which seems to work better than the inherited dealer network. "Before the opening of the branch there were 2 Wood-Mizer representatives in Suceava and Cluj. After the establishment of Wood-Mizer Romania we continued to work with them. At the moment we work only with the one in Suceava and we have other collaborations with other representatives in different areas such as Harghita, Vrancea or Brasov. In the meantime we started to have our own agents. We have our own cars that go out in the field. This system works even better than the dealer system. At the moment the sales and service system is somewhat hybrid, both our own and through dealers. Basically, the customers who are not reached by the dealers are reached by our employees. We try to reach as many customers as possible."

Wood-Mizer Romania ranks 3rd in sales among European countries, after Poland and Germany

Wood-Mizer is a multinational company with operations on all continents. In Europe the headquarters are in Poland. "In countries where it has found it best to have control over servicing and other operational activities, Wood-Mizer has opened subsidiaries. In Europe subsidiaries exist in Romania, Russia, the UK, Germany, France and Norway. In terms of sales, Romania ranks third in Europe after Poland and Germany." Adrian tells me.

What is the range of machines sold by Wood-Mizer Romania?

Wood-Mizer's slogan is "From forest to final form". Their ambition is clear, to supply the full range of equipment - or almost all of it - needed for both primary and secondary processing. "In recent years Wood-Mizer has been growing and has acquired several companies. One of them is Tymbery, a brand with which we want to cover the entry level segment, very entry level if I can say so. Last year we also went to the Indagra agricultural fair where we tried to promote this type of product which sells very well in Western Europe. There, the farmer can afford to buy a 3000-4000 euro machine to build a fence with the wood he has. This range of products are totally self-contained, with mainly gasoline engines, but there are also electric versions.

Then there's the Wood-Mizer range. Smaller, non-hydraulic machinesLT 10, LT 15 are more robust than the Timbery range. They are for 8-hour production. In Western Europe these machines are also bought for occasional production. Here they are bought for production. A customer was even telling me that he bought the smallest machine and produces railway sleepers with it.

The next range of machines offers the hydraulic option. All the log handling, loading, turning, turning, clamping, everything is done hydraulically. This category includes the LT 20, LT 40, LT 70. There are computer options, pre-cutter. With these machines we enter professional range and here we're talking 2, maybe 3 shifts per machine that can work without any problems. These kind of machines is the main segment that we sell.

With the acquisition of a factory in South Africa, we will also have another, much larger machine in the range on offer Tytan. With them we will no longer be able to address our traditional customers. We have to think of another strategy and approach other customers because, in the case of Tytan, we are talking about hundreds of cubic meters of logs per shift. We will also see how suitable this kind of activity is for the Romanian market.

Another novelty is that Wood-Mizer is also developing on the industrial side, the machine WB 2000 has undergone a few more changes. This year we will also be promoting the 75 mm sail model with normal pitch in Romania. We think this is the one that best suits our market."

What is the difference between a Romanian and a Western European customer?

"In Western Europe and America a lot of machines are sold mobile, completely independent, gasoline, diesel. This kind of machinery is even used for services. The person who owns the machine goes from man to man and cuts the customer's log. I think we have 2 or 3 machines of this type sold in Romania. There is no legislation to regulate this kind of activity. To get an environmental permit you need a fixed point of work. Perhaps this is also why we in Romania are unable to sell this type of equipment.

We operate this kind of professional activity in which a stationary, mostly electric, sawmill is used 8-16 hours a day just to cut timber for primary processing from logs into lumber. Lumber for construction or export is the finished material. That's pretty much the business model our customers have. The vast majority of the machines we sell are in this category, about 80-90%. In this respect we are totally different from Germany, for example, where the mobile machines are predominant. Few of our customers also have the secondary processing part."

"This year we will also have a new range of secondary processing machines"

From my point of view, this year's surprise news for Wood-Mizer is the acquisition of the Swedish manufacturer MOReTENs AB. "This year we will also have a new range of secondary processing machines. Wood-Mizer has acquired a manufacturer in Sweden, MOReTENs AB, and - in doing so - we are going further in our desire to live up to our slogan, From forest to final form. Until now we were only at primary form. Now, with these machines, we are approaching final form. We will be offering 2-4-sided planing, milling, sanding machines. These machines will also be sold under the Wood-Mizer brand. The first secondary processing machines were on display at Expowood. Wood-Mizer's biggest strength is its distribution network and we want to take advantage of this by selling the secondary processing machines. Prices will start at €3500 and will go up to €5000, €7000, €9000 depending on the equipment. That will be the price range. We haven't decided yet, we'll probably try to make packages that include this kind of products."

Wood-Mizer super-weeks

"Also new is that we will have discounts on certain product series, discounts generated by so-called super weeks. It's a system copied by the Polish factory from the American factory. In that super week they produce only one type of machine, with a certain configuration, standard. In this way they become much more efficient and the cost per machine produced is substantially reduced. As an example, there was a super week when the LT 40 was produced. Normally in a normal week they would produce 16 pieces. Because they adopted this system, in that super week they produced 21. The efficiency gained in this way was passed on in the price, resulting in a reduction of 20% in the list price of the machine. This kind of activity will be repeated this year. In order to benefit from this type of offer there are certain conditions to be met by the customer. Within 2 weeks the machine must be paid for and delivered. Otherwise the offer is lost. From customer feedback I can tell you that it looks like a successful scheme."

10 years in Romania

This year, all customers who buy a machine from Wood-Mizer Romania and participate in the Customer Day at the end of October can win one of three prizes. "First prize is a BMS500 industrial sharpening machine worth €4000 + VAT, second prize is a BMT250 industrial sharpening machine worth €3000 + VAT and third prize is 60 Max Flex blades worth approximately (depending on their length) €1400 + VAT." Competition rules can be found on Wood-Mizer website.

I had a long chat with Adrian Echert and it would take me a lot of space to write the whole discussion. I found him to be very organized in his thinking and with very clearly defined steps to follow, which has been proven over the last 10 years.