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 like lifelong friends and it was a surprise to find out that they had only known each other for 2 days. She liked the positive energy of the ever-smiling Japanese woman from the start and the expat experience contributed to the closeness. Mihai spent almost 3 years in China, from where he returned to start a wood business. At the fair he entered the Design Competition with a multi-configurable solid wood furniture, with elaborate joints that take you back to oriental techniques. It's a company project that he worked on for days, from dawn until late at night, to get it ready on time. It's a fine wooden piece of 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 stylish 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 can't seem to forget it

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

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

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

Although they got along perfectly, laughed a lot together and would have liked to have her for life, cultural differences and pressure from her family eventually drove them apart. On August 3, his birthday, he was returning home with plans to start his own woodworking business.

Start of business. Funding

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

The idea for a wood business came from his father. He was a computer engineer, head of the Calculation 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 it gets you, you can't get rid of it! Microbul caught him working side by side with my dad on older projects. In fact I guess 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 the wood. And now, when I apply oil over a nearly finished piece, I understand perfectly what my father saw, especially since oil "makes the wood talk".

They started the business together. Unfortunately, Michael lost his father a year ago. Because the furniture entered in the competition was designed and started long ago with his father, he decided to name it after him - Nelu.

He set up the company in 2015, opening the workshop in his grandparents' village, in the old dilapidated animal shelter behind the house. That same year he applied for European funding through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, Rural Investment Funding Agency.

"The project for the funds I wrote 90% alone , in 2 nights and 1 day. On Sunday night I was in Bucharest, in the Regie, printing and scanning documents to submit the project and on Monday morning at 10 am the submission session closed. I was lucky and a few months later my project was selected for funding. The money went into the account pretty quickly, but I waited a good few months before I was sure how it should be spent."

It received approval in 2016 for €70,000 in funding and will receive the money in two instalments. In 2017 he bought a combined cutting and milling machine, a abricht thick and a Hammer band saw and exhauster system. All were purchased from Felder Gruppe Romania.

He also has a 4-axis CNC 1825 that he brought directly from China, configured exactly to his requirements. He tells him The chubby because it has a mass of 1.8 x 2.5 m. This is not his first experience with CNCs. In China he made his own, smaller one from bought parts. Student, as he named it, arrived in the country before he did, unpacked 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, preferring the big one.

"CNC technology I don't necessarily use 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, dreaming nice and far

In the first part of the funding it received 70% of the amount, i.e. €50,000. To receive the second part, he just has to submit the documents. He has met the sales target imposed by the programme, now he just needs time to put the documents together. Time is the worst, because he is the only employee and is in the workshop all day. In the evenings he can do other work.

Since it started, it has been continually increasing its workspace (now up to 200 m²) and is constantly reinvesting to get as close as possible to its original dream. IDUTANG was born out of the desire to manufacture complex, high-quality and attractive 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-framed homes to smart electronics. For now, it works with wooden furniture and sometimes MDF, custom-finished with a Wagner airless pump, which he modified himself to achieve a very good film quality.

"We also make furniture from painted MDF because I have to adapt the business to market requirements. I haven't yet wanted to move towards chipboard because it deviates too much 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 attention and care 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. He carefully selects raw material that comes from sustainable sources and adds value to each piece of wood. He makes furniture that is physically and aesthetically strong, eco-friendly furniture for which he uses natural, renewable and non-polluting materials. She loves to exchange ideas with like-minded people and opens the workshop doors for them.

"At the workshop, from time to time, people who are passionate about wood, former architecture graduates or DIY enthusiasts, come to exchange ideas and impressions with whom I exchange ideas, and who are happy to dive into the dust just to see how it is. 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 my father better who during the first years of the project was my business partner, co-worker 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 they have a family motto born from the words of Brâncuși - He works like a slave, commands like a king and creates like a god! With them, the saying became: He commands like a king, creates like a god and works with passion!

Good luck, Mihai!