Stories from the fair - After 3 years in China he returned to make wooden furniture at home

Mihai Irimescu, IDUTANGI knew him as well as Ayakoat the stand Arboritm. They seemed lifelong friends and it was a surprise to find out that they had only known each other for 2 days. He liked the always smiling Japanese woman's positive energy from the start and the expat experience helped to bring them closer. Mihai spent almost 3 years in China, from where he returned to start a wood business. At the fair he participated in the Design Competition with a multi-configurable furniture made of solid wood, with elaborate joints that make you think of oriental techniques. It's a project of the firm's own, on which they worked for days on end, from dawn to late into the night, to get it ready on time. It's fine-line wooden furniture that combines traditional craftsmanship with modern technology. The road here has been long, with many dreams, disappointments and new beginnings. He returned to make furniture in an old animal shelter behind his grandparents' house, starting from a sleek office on the 20th of 43 floors of an office building in China. And that wasn't the only sacrifice!

IDUTANG - the place of a beginning that seems unable to forget

Mihai graduated in Agronomy (Faculty of Management) in Bucharest, then did a Master in International Business and Entrepreneurship at the University of Essex, England. He finished it in 2011, after which he tried several jobs in England, then in Bucharest. He was not satisfied and kept looking. Then an opportunity came up in China. At first he had problems with his visa, which was only granted for one month. But he left in December 2013, just before Christmas. He managed to resolve his stay there by buying visas in Hong Kong, so he extended his Chinese experience until 2015.

His stay in China has left its mark and brought him much happiness. The name he chose for the firm suggests as much-- IDUTANG. We found out that it was the name of a restaurant where he spent an unforgettable evening with Delia, the Chinese girlfriend he still considers his ideal match.

"One night I went to a talk show where I met Delia and also that night I went out for the first time in the city, to a restaurant that seemed to be very welcoming and relaxing. I don't know if it was the atmosphere of the restaurant or maybe just Delia, but the name of the place and the feelings of that night have left an impression on me and have stayed with me - IDUTANG."

Although they got along perfectly, laughed a lot together and would have wanted to be with her for the rest of their lives, cultural differences and pressure from her family eventually drove them apart. On August 3, his birthday, he returned home with the idea of starting his own business in the timber trade.

Starting your business. Funding

"In 2015 I left China looking for business opportunities and at the time Romania was the best choice. It offered me access to the most advantageous financing - European funds. I knew the money was there and I also had the location where I was going to run the business - the old stable behind my grandparents' house - which needed a lot of work." 

The idea for a wood business came from his father. He was a computer engineer, head of the Computer Office in Câmpina, but his passion was wood and he wanted to have his own carpentry workshop.

"The passion for wood is like the motorcycle bug. Once you get it, you can't get rid of it! MI caught the icrobul working side by side with my dad on older projects. In fact, I think I had no escape because when I was a kid, my dad had a Russian abrincht and when he would pull a plank, he would come with great enthusiasm to show us the beauty of wood. And now, when I apply oil to an almost-finished piece, I understand perfectly what my father was seeing, especially since oil "makes the wood speak". 

They started the business together. Sadly, Mihai lost his father a year ago. Since the furniture entered in the competition was conceived and started long ago, together with his father, he decided to name the furniture after him - Nelu.

The company was established in 2015, opening the workshop in her grandparents' village, in the old dilapidated animal shelter behind the house. That same year it applied for European funding through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, Rural Investment Financing Agency.

"I wrote the project for the 90% funds by myself in 2 nights and a day. On Sunday night I was in Bucharest, in the Regie, printing and scanning documents to submit the project and on Monday at 10 in the morning the submission session closed. I was lucky and a few months later my project was selected for funding. The money went into the account fairly quickly, but I waited a good few months until I was sure how it should be spent." 

He received approval in 2016 for a €70,000 grant and will receive the money in two installments. In 2017 he bought a combined cutting and milling machine, a abricht and a Hammer brand band saw and exhaust system. All purchased from Felder Gruppe Romania.

He also has a 4-axis CNC 1825 CNC that he brought straight from China, set up exactly to his requirements. He calls it The chubby because it's 1.8 x 2.5 meters. This is not his first experience with CNCs. In China, he made a smaller one himself from bought parts. Student, as he baptized it, arrived in the country before him, disassembled into rigorously numbered component parts, packed in 3 parcels and sent by courier. In the country he reassembled it, bringing it back to working order, but now he doesn't really work with it anymore, he prefers the big one.

"I don't necessarily use CNC technology for mass production but rather as a solution for finesse and complexity. But future projects (business development) will definitely include cnc for series production." 

Still in the beginning, dream nice and far away

In the first part of the grant it received 701TPTP3T of the amount, i.e. €50,000. To receive the second part he just has to submit the paperwork. He has met the sales target set by the program, now he just needs time to put the paperwork together. He has the worst time as he is the only employee and is in the workshop all day. In the evenings he can do other activities.

Since it started, it has been continuously increasing its workspace (now up to 200 m²) and is constantly reinvesting to get as close as possible to its initial dream. IDUTANG was born out of the desire to manufacture complex, high quality and attractively designed wooden furniture, combining modern technology and advanced know-how with the tradition of woodworking. But it wants much more, with a development vision ranging from innovative solutions for timber-frame houses to smart electronics. For now it works with wooden furniture and sometimes MDF, custom-finished using a Wagner airless pump, which he modified himself to achieve very good film quality.

"We also make furniture from painted MDF because I have to adapt the business to market requirements. I didn't want to move towards chipboard yet because it moves too far away from the characteristics of wood, whereas MDF still allows some milling like wood." 

Mihai is the exponent of a generation of educated and responsible young people, with care and attention for what they do and respect for their surroundings. He says the aim is to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. They carefully select raw materials that are sustainably sourced and add value to every piece of wood. She makes furniture that is physically and aesthetically resilient, eco-friendly furniture for which she uses natural, renewable and non-polluting materials. She enjoys exchanging ideas with others who share the same passion and opens the workshop doors for them.

"From time to time, people come to the workshop who are passionate about wood, former architecture graduates or DIY enthusiasts, with whom I exchange ideas and impressions and who gladly dive into the dust just to see what it's like. The IDUTANG project , for me, is a success, giving me the opportunity to better discover my passion for wood, to meet passionate people in the industry and to get to know better my dad who in the first years of the project was my business partner, coworker and best friend." 

Mihai Irimescu works hard to fulfill his dreams and hopes, but he does it with passion and dedication. He tells me that in his family they have a motto born from the words of Brâncuși - Work like a slave, rule like a king and create like a god! With them, the saying became: Command like a king, create like a god and work with passion!

Good luck, Mihai!