Adrian Echert, Manager Wood-Mizer Romania, invites you to the Customer Day

We took the opportunity to meet Adrian Echert to learn more about Wood-Mizer Romania, the company he runs, what the last 14 years have meant for him and Wood-Mizer Romania. The most important information is that Wood-Mizer Romania will organize this year's Wood-Mizer Customer Day, on October 29th, in Sibiu, at the Redal exhibition center. Why do I say it's the most important?! Because I went to the last edition of the event, we saw the extent and the level of interest from the participants. So I personally enthusiastically recommend attending this event. Read more about Adrian Echert, Wood-Mizer and Wood-Mizer Customer Day in the following interview.

More than half of 2022 has passed. What have been the challenges of this year so far?

Adrian Echert: Yes. There have been challenges like every year, but this year they seem to have been harder, mainly related to price increases. We also had to change our chain prices like the rest of the suppliers, which complicated sales. Other challenges were production lead times for machinery, parts shortages, parts price increases. We were in constant contact with our colleagues in Poland, with our parent company. They, too, had problems with parts shortages and were unable to finish the machines on time. Sometimes cylinders were missing, sometimes pneumatic or other equipment. The prices of some parts even exploded. We are keeping an eye on them, trying to keep them where they are, but all the chain increases above are coming and there is nothing we can do. In the end there have been a lot of challenges, but it seems like we've somehow adapted and so have the customers. Unfortunately the customers have also had to adapt to the new way of doing things and doing business. But looking at the numbers, looking at the sales, looking at everything, it's a good year and it will end well. We'll see what next year brings.

40 years of LT40, 14 years of Wood-Mizer Romania. You were the first Wood-Mizer Romania employee. How do these 14 years seem to you now, looking back?

AE: I was even in Poland recently, in August, for a meeting with the Wood-Mizer international board of directors. Together with the manager from Germany we were invited to present our business model to colleagues from all over the world. To show what we have done and what we haven't done to achieve such good results in Romania and in Germany. Making that presentation reminded me of these 14 years, how I started everything and how I was the first employee. Even if it said director, that first employee was doing loading and unloading and parcels and cleaning and everything else. I've evolved a lot since then. Now we are 12 colleagues, we do a lot more things, and I say we do them a lot better. We clearly sell and service a lot more customers than we could 14 years ago. I have evolved for the better, both as a person and as a company, in Romania, as a representation. Looking back I don't know if I would change anything. I like how the company has grown. I like the people I have managed to gather, people who represent Wood-Mizer in Romania and with whom you, the customers, talk every day. We are trying to make things better and better, just to live up to the reputation Wood-Mizer has around the world.

What are your next plans? How do you think they will influence the market, how will they support customers?

AE: We have plans, of course. There are always plans. First of all to succeed in honouring all the requests we have because, in some cases, we don't succeed. Here we have a minus. That means more people, it means bigger storage spaces, it means being ready for the growth that is coming. I say growth because Wood-Mizer has been on the global market for a long time and we have been active in Romania long enough to realise that no matter what the situation looks like now there will always be growth, even if in some cases there may be a decrease before.

How many people work in Wood-Mizer now? How are they organised by department?

AE: As I said, we are 12 colleagues in total. Three of them are actively going on service visits, installations, because we have more than 1000 machines in the market. It's a relevant figure, recently calculated. Most of them are industrial because that's what we mainly sell. The 3 colleagues are coordinated by a Technical Director, Radu Hudea, whom most customers know and have already spoken to. We have 2 colleagues who manage the sale of the blades and parts and go on site to the customers. Another colleague is dedicated to machinery sales, two others manage the warehouse, orders, invoices and delivery of blades and parts to customers. One colleague manages the resharpening side, another for the production of blades, and I am responsible for managing all of them.

What are Wood-Mizer Romania's plans for the medium and long term (5-10 years)? What do you think Wood-Mizer will look like in 14 years?

AE: The plans, mine at least, until they are approved by global management, are related to expansion. We have grown year by year in terms of people, sales and space requirements, and it is precisely the latter - space requirements - that we don't have, and we can't keep the existing space organised because it is small. In conclusion, this is my expansion plan. Expansion of office space, production space, storage space, everything that makes for a better workplace. I don't know in what timeframe this will be implemented, it is a plan that is being worked on. We'll also see under what conditions the market will help us or not. We are constantly thinking about expanding on the sales side, with more colleagues and on the service side to be able to manage the volume of installations and service we have, so that we can reduce waiting times.

I know you are preparing something special for Wood-Mizer customers. What is it?

AE: We want to do Wood-Mizer Customer Day again this year. We've had a very long break since we last did the event. It was also because of the pandemic, there was also the hope that there would be fairs and we would see each other there. But that hope didn't come true so we're going to do the Customer Day event. It will be a day where I hope we will see as many people as possible and we will also discuss the problems that are in the market - because we should not ignore them - the needs of the customers and our needs, because they are there too. But the main wish is to see each other again and have a good time together, which we haven't done since 2018. We also want to help you with good prices on everything from parts, blades and machinery at this event, as we have done every time. So,See you at Wood-Mizer Customer Day on 29 October in Sibiu, at the Redal exhibition centre, as in 2018.