What would you do if your factory went up in flames? It’s a thought-provoking question to ponder, but it was a live issue for Antoni Rajwer when Thermakraft’s factory caught fire in an enormous blaze that needed 70 firefighters to get it under control.
With all its factory manufacturing capability destroyed, Thermakraft’s position as the number one manufacturer in the country was in jeopardy. Antoni was the Operations and Technical Manager, and it was his job to rebuild the process and secure the machinery to get them back in the game. That could have been a daunting task, but Antoni’s good in a crisis. So good, in fact, that in just three months the factory was operating again and in six months Thermakraft had a new building and could bring a complete range of products back to the market.
The project brought Antoni’s relationship management skills to the fore as he worked with local government and international suppliers to get the planning permissions and identify the machinery the factory needed. He didn’t just replace the old machinery; he took the opportunity to re-think Thermakraft’s approach and sourced new equipment from Holland and US. Rather than wait for it to be shipped, he arranged for the plant to be airfreighted to get Thermakraft back online as fast as possible. “Having to find people who could ship that machinery by air was a challenge,” he says, but one he overcame.
Antoni puts this turn-around down to “a real make-it-happen mindset.” It’s a remarkable achievement, but it’s amazing what can happen with a bit of strategy, creativity, and pragmatism.
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