The renowned Danish production company Haugaard Company has completed the move into a new factory in Latvia, and thus the company has taken a big step forward in the efficiency strategy that was laid out at the turn of the year, when Michael F. Nielsen also took over as CEO of Haugaard.
The move means that, as planned, Haugaard Company has moved from three Latvian locations to gathering all production at a single address in Jelgava, 40 km from the capital Riga, and according to Michael F. Nielsen, it provides several obvious advantages that are essential in relation to the company’s plans.
”“Our new setup means that today we have gathered all the production activities under one roof in a state-of-the-art, efficient production, where we have had regard for the environment and climate very high on the agenda from day one, and one of our latest investments is, for example a brand-new electric powder coating line that runs on green electricity. With the move, we have gained a good 11,000 m2 under the same roof, and this means that we can now seriously step up our ‘One Stop’ concept, where we offer customers total solutions with full service throughout the entire value chain,” says Michael F Nielsen, who has no doubt that the concept will be a game changer, not least in furniture production:
Michael F Nielsen
“The recent years with the corona pandemic, the logistics problems during the blockade of the Suez Canal and the uncertainty with the war in Ukraine have meant that the furniture industry has experienced an unusual surge, and of course this has also affected the order books at Haugaard Company in the past year, but now can we look into a new era where both we and our partners are well prepared for the future. In the spring, we had to say goodbye to a group of people due to a lack of orders, and of course we are incredibly sad about that. Fortunately, we are now in a situation where we have moved to state-of-the-art production, and we can take in more types of orders than we could before, and I am convinced that it is a strengthened Haugaard that we see today.”
According to Michael F. Nielsen, many Haugaard customers have already bought into integrated solutions, where entire furniture series are produced, assembled, and delivered by the Haugaard Group from the new factory in Jelgeva. The Danish branch on Emmelevvej in Kappendrup takes care of development and design in close collaboration with customers, just as advanced procedures such as pipe laser cutting and pipe bending for other industries are carried out on Nordfyn.
“With the One Stop concept, we have created a popular setup where we meet a wide range of contemporary challenges. In our part of production, we can offer high quality at competitive prices because we increase efficiency when we streamline the processes, and at the same time, the world situation has emphasized the importance of a reliable supply chain with minimized risk of disruptions. And we can ensure that to our business partners already today,” says Haugaard’s CEO.
Owner Claus Haugaard, who himself handed over the CEO chair to Michael F. Nielsen at beginning of the year to dedicate to the post of head of sales and business development, is naturally pleased by the news.
“Michael has steered the ship safely through troubled waters, which was desired with the course we set out at the turn of the year. Now we are looking into an autumn when we will begin the production of more very exciting projects at the new factory in Jelgeva. I am convinced that the future looks very bright at Haugaard Company,” states Claus Haugaard, who is currently working on a unique sales project:
“Now that we are on target with the move to the new factory, we are just getting ready to sell our previous address in Latvia. It is a six-year-old production unit of 3,000 m2 on a 14,000 m2 plot at an attractive address in Jelgava, and we have already sensed a lot of interest.”