"Slonimmebel": on a new wave

The trends in furniture fashion are especially ruthless towards the elite segment: design solutions, which served as attributes of exclusive collections, are duplicated with double speed in mass series of middle and economy classes. A pleasant paradox is that at the stage of development of promising products, enterprises of the level of OJSC "Slonimmebel" often face on the market with foreign clones of their own yesterday's developments.

- In this situation it is difficult to lose. Thanks to constant monitoring of fashion trends, participation in the most prestigious Belarusian and international furniture forums - both with corporate expositions and in the role of observers - we form a general concept of the development of market trends and forecasts for the future. But this is nothing more than a primer for the canvas on which our designers, in an atmosphere of free creative search, sketch the first outlines of the collection or the whole direction. From this moment the technological, accounting, supply and marketing services, including the heads of the enterprise, begin to work in the interests of the new artistic concept.

- So, a specialist with an art education dictates requirements to production workers?

- Your question illustrates the main and, as time showed, an inexcusable mistake that formed public opinion regarding the principles of reforming the domestic woodworking. Unfortunately, this approach sometimes prevails in management decisions: an increase in the share of domestic labor, added value, and in the final products - deciduous roundwood - plywood - products made of plywood. In the same way - for in-depth processing of coniferous wood with output for the production of plate materials, including MDF, chipboard and fiberboard. All of them are used in the products of JSC Slonimmebel, however in the final cost Belarusian supplies take a very modest share. In fact, up to 60% of production needs are provided by imports from Russia and foreign countries (film, paper, furniture, paint, etc.). If we take into account the resins and other chemical ingredients used in the production of domestic plate materials, the final product of the company in terms of its composition and composition is about 80% imported.

Simultaneously with the modernization of woodworking, it would also be necessary to plan the program of actions for the reform of the chemical industry, metalworking - in the part of the production of fittings, and many other projects. We, for example, invested in the creation of our own production of decorative elements from polyurethane foam, halving their prime cost in comparison with foreign supplies.

Here you can talk about many initiatives, the essence of which boils down to one thing: we are striving for maximum mobility of production lines and supply schemes for implementing the most daring design ideas. It is reasonable to subordinate this process to the principles of import substitution only in the part where it is dictated by the logic of price reduction and marginalization of the final product, but at the expense of the innovative idea - never! Directive patriotism is a bad adviser when choosing the ideal complete set of the final product. Apparently, from here - and extremely modest success of Belarusian holdings and similar structures seeking to increase the value added, depth and degree of wood processing within the framework of a single vertically integrated structure: from the cutting area to the counter of the furniture store.

Each link in the production process must be independent in choosing a development strategy. So, in the staff of our enterprise - about 400 people. We believe that this is the optimal number for mobile furniture production in Belarus - it has been tested by many years of market practice.

- Vladimir Vladimirovich, probably, you have a special relation to the term "modernization"?

- We have already said that the industrial and marketing policy of OJSC Slonimmebel is the embodiment of the most cosmopolitan industrial model, where the energy and talent of the Belarusians, who exploit foreign technologies and markets to meet the budgetary needs of the country and their hometown, are the driving force of the process. Hence the logical essence of our approach to renewal and modernization of fixed assets.

Since 2010, this process has acquired a permanent character: the annual development budget reaches $ 1 million, adjusted for the most advanced trends in the woodworking industry. In fact, as a result of such investments, we have entered the European rhythm of the change of technological generations - about 7 years. By this indicator, today we are ahead of the majority of the profile enterprises of Belarus and Russia.

Of course, there are lines that surpass Slonim's in performance, the level of automation, but the secret is that we were not so much striving for volume indicators as for increasing the mobility of production programs. Some machines or paint systems can be changed several times per shift without affecting the volume of the total production.

- The consumer votes for furniture from Slonim ruble, euro, tenge and rials ... But wholesale buyers in the course of more universal accounting systems - the rate of profit on transactions with products from Belarus.

- Wholesalers know that we sell no more than 10% of the products in the republic - collections in the elite and medium-sized segments + find their customers mainly in Minsk. Today this is perhaps the most spoiled category of buyers, which reminds the Moscow public of the pre-crisis pattern. But, strangely enough, today the largest foreign furniture market is not the capital of Russia, but ... Makhachkala. The level and volume of representation of brands on the shores of the Caspian Sea is an order of magnitude higher!

The competitive field, having shifted to the zone of Iranian riyal and Azerbaijani manat, has not changed - these are the same Russian factories familiar with Moscow exhibitions. But the eastern color and local perception of luxury leave their imprint on the production programs of colleagues. Here we feel quite comfortable, although I would also like to mention the European vector of commodity expansion of Slonimmebel: this year we opened a showroom in the Italian resort town of Pesero - at the edge of luxury villas and hotels on the Adriatic coast.

This type of sales involves a wide variety of interior solutions in the complex, including textiles, decorative glass and ceramics. So we fit perfectly or, at least, do not violate the harmony of the beautiful Mediterranean.

- Meet the dawn in the soft arms of "Jennifer", "Victoria" and "Marianne"! Such a slogan accompanied the promotion of the famous bedroom sets from Slonim to the market. Why are collections named after women?

- Women's theme - inexhaustible. Among the novelties of the season-2016 - the bedroom "Garda", created for stylistic reasons of the country, but with the use of one of the most environmentally-friendly and popular finishing materials - eco-paint. At the same time, we can not fail to mention the line of elite living-room sets "Vitovt", the beginning of the production of chairs - all this within the framework of our movement towards creating stylistically finished solutions for housing in various parts of the world.

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Глеб ПОКРОВСКИЙ

Soure: director.by