Success story: a young salesman passionate about woodworking opened his own furniture workshop through Start-Up Nation

Claudiu Sucaciu got into the furniture manufacturing business by chance. After several years working in a woodworking factory, he decided to make furniture on his own. In 2017 he opened his own business through the Start-Up Nation. It now produces wood and chipboard furniture to order and provides cutting and canting services for a partner company.

Production: made to order wooden and chipboard furniture
Processing machinery purchased through Start-Up Nation:

• • Felder CF 741 S Professional 5-operation universal joinery machine with support table, for straightening, planing, trimming, cutting, milling/planing, drilling/routing
  • Felder FD 21 PRO multiple drilling machine
  • Felder G 360 professional canting machine
  • Schneider UniMaster UNM 660-10-90 D mobile piston compressor
  • Felder AF 22-200 Professional Stationary Exhaust System
  • Felder AF 22 Mobile professional mobile exhaustion system
  • Felder F-38 8-speed mechanical feed device

The secret of their business success: product quality and respect of production deadlines

INTERVIEW Felder Gruppe Romania - Claudiu Sucaciu, Anaira Art Mob, Cluj

How did you get into making furniture?

Claudiu Sucaciu: Before I had contact with the woodworking field, I worked as a salesman. At that time, my boss took over a carpentry company and asked us at a meeting who wanted to be part of the team that would be in charge of the new furniture manufacturing business. Myself and another colleague said "let's jump in, let's see what we're made of". Especially as he had just bought some solid wood machinery and I was passionate about wood. I was always surprised to see what you could make out of a piece of wood. This was around 2009, 2010. The machining equipment was purchased, production started, and we were responsible for customer relations, the tendering and measuring.

Gradually, I developed a passion for furniture making and decided to try it on my own. At the beginning it was more difficult because unfortunately there are not many craftsmen available. On the production side, I basically stole the trade from my former colleagues. I would sit next to them to see how they worked, I would ask them all sorts of questions and they would answer me wondering why I was asking them. That's how I stole the job and in 2016 I started on my own. Then I set up the company Anaira Art Mob and I bought the processing machines from Felder Gruppe Romania through the program Start-Up Nation.

What exactly do you produce?

Claudiu Sucaciu: We make custom furniture for individual and corporate clients and average 2-3 complete kitchens per month, depending on size. Since we got the machines, we are independent, we manage on our own and do all the production in-house without depending on others. What's more, we also do cutting and carpentry for a local furniture company that we also help.

What do you think customers appreciate most about you?

Claudiu Sucaciu: The quality of our products and meeting production deadlines I think are the main things our customers appreciate and recommend us for. Once we give a deadline, we stick to it. Even if it's not ready the day before delivery, we stay on schedule and finalize the order so that we can deliver within the deadline we have given to the customer. There have been exceptions, of course, but those situations were out of our control. For example, the partners we work with did not deliver the materials on time. In such situations there is really nothing we can do.

Read the full interview HERE.

The interview with Claudiu Sucaciu is part of the Felder Gruppe stories campaign which you can read here.