wolf tales winter eng

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PERSON WOLF TALES WORLD MAP: 78 EXPORT MARKETS INTRODUCING A STRATEGIC PARTNER: COVESTRO STIG BREDAHL – OUR LONE WOLF THE INCONSISTENCIES OF SUSTAINABILITY IN CONSTRUCTION NEWS: KRIMELTE RUSSIA TURNED 10 ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY FOAM +MORE Industrial technology has come home: PENOSIL EasyPRO AUTUMN | WINTER 2015

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Page 1: Wolf Tales winter eng

PERSON

AUTUMN | WINTER 2015 1wolf tales

WOLF TALESWORLD MAP: 78EXPORT MARKETS

INTRODUCING A STRATEGIC PARTNER: COVESTRO

STIG BREDAHL – OUR LONE WOLF

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T H E I N C O N S I S T E N C I E S O F S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y I N C O N S T R U C T I O N

NEWS: KRIMELTE

RUSSIA TURNED 10

ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY FOAM

+MORE

Industrial technology  has come home:

PENOSIL EasyPRO

AUTUMN | WINTER 2015

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AUTUMN | WINTER 20152 wolf tales

THE JUBILEE YEAR passed and it was followed by our 21st year of op-erations. For the Wolf Group, 2015 has been full of challenges and in many re-spects one of our most demanding.

On the one hand, our fortunes as well as our spirits continue to be influ-enced by crises in Russia, Brazil and Finland. On the other, our list of clients and target countries is getting longer and longer. This means that despite something of a decline in sales vol-umes, there has been no reduction in how much work we have to do every day. Quite the opposite: we have un-dertaken many ambitious projects that presented totally new challenges.

2015 has not lacked an anniversary –Krimelte’s Russian factory celebrated its tenth year of operations so please accept congratulations to the whole group in Zhukovsky! The intensive in-tegration of the Olivé Group into the Wolf Group has continued and it seems that this process will continue to be one of the most exciting projects for both companies. The Olivé factory success-fully launched Axapta which, for the time being, entails a great deal of work and familiarisation with new practices. The unexpectedly rapid growth in sales in Olivé’s markets has left our produc-

2016 TO BE THE YEAR OF TEAMWORK!

IN THIS ISSUE 2 Editorial 3 News 4 A lone wolf in the heart of Europe – Stig Bredahl 6 Industrial technology has come home: PENOSIL EasyPRO9 Introducing a strategic partner: Covestro10 Wolf Group world map 12 The Inconsistencies of sustainablity in construction14 Gallery: summer days of Krimelte and celebration of Zhukovsky factory turning 1016 Obituary for Henning Nygårds 17 Obituary for Danel Pleiats18 Project management success story: Axapta implementation19 Congratulations: Old-timers, birthdays, new parents, newcomers

Introducing contributorsNIGEL PITTMANPR consultant for 12 years specialising in construction, having previously been a marketing director and manager with leading building product manufacturers for 25 years. Writing in this issue about product sustainability.

STIG BREDAHLAP Degree in marketing mana-gement – international sales and marketing. More than 30 years experience in purchasing, trans-port/logistics & global sales and marketing management. For this issue he wrote a farewell to much loved colleague Henning Nygård. JAAN PUUSAAGChariman of Krimelte. Jaan estab-lished OÜ Krimelte with Jaanus Paeväli in 1994. Four years later, they became a manufacturing company with 5 people. In 2010 he was selected businessman of the year. In this issue he writes about teamwork in 2016.

tion output bursting at the seams but, all in all, this is an extraordinarily pos-itive development.

The year 2015 will go down in his-tory for the launch of the new Easy-PRO retail concept. Those involved are convinced of the unique value that this new solution has to offer. Two years of intensive work and now at last it is time to see what the results will be.

Looking back on a year that will soon be over, it is gratifying to reflect on how many discoveries, opportuni-ties and challenges it has brought us. I have directed this company for more than 20 years, and it is still as exciting as it was in the beginning. As always, we never reach the point when every-thing is completely clear but thanks to the outstanding people we have in our team, the board of directors continue to seek ways to use them to their full potential.

A study carried out regarding our company’s work environment resulted in a critical conclusion about coopera-tion between our various departments. Nor did the board of directors escape criticism so, knowing that our success is founded primarily on everyone working closely together, the greatest challenge for 2016 will be improving how we do that throughout the group. Everyone has their contribution to make and their opinions and input are extremely important.

So, I hereby designate 2016 as the Year of Teamwork! Starting today, let’s all work together in thi s direction!

2 wolf tales

Jaan PuusaagChairman of Krimelte / Wolf Group

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NEWS

Happy Birthday, Krimelte Russia! In July, Krimelte Russia reached the 10-year anniversary of its registration as a business. The factory began putting out product in 2007.

The festive occasion was celebrated by the board of direc-tors and office personnel of Krimelte Russia on September 24th in true Russian style, that is, with laden tables.

Alar Salum, Managing director of Krimelte / Wolf Group, commented “Russia is our largest market with many custom-ers; our factory there supplies foams to a number of private label accounts. We manufacture aerosol products and cleaners there which gives us competitiveness as we have no additional transport and customs costs to cover.” Salum is delighted with the stability shown by this year’s sales compared to those of 2014. He added, “The Russian market is in dire straits, having faced a decline of nearly 30%. Despite this, our team has suc-ceeded in maintaining sales as well as finding new clients to provide a foundation for the future.”

SPAIN IS BACK IN THE GAME Spain is recovering from long-term crisis. 2015 is the first to have seen a rise in its GDP, with sales for Krimelte’s subsi-diary, Olivé Química increasing by more than 10%. This is an excellent growth indeed!

VICTORY IN LITHUANIALet us applaud our great Lithuanian sales wolves! Until now, the largest Baltic market has been Estonia, but this year Lithuania has pulled ahead. According to absolute figures, Lithuania is now the largest Wolf Group market in the Baltics.

A NEW TREND: FOAMS THAT ARE MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLYIn certain countries there are restrictions on sales of products containing MDIs as they classify isocyanates as ‘irritant’. As a result, our development department has focuses on formu-lating products that will not be classified in this way. Krimelte has developed a new monomeric MDI (methylene diphenyl diisocynate)- free polyurethane foam formulation which we can now offer in these demanding markets. These are still niche products, marketed mainly in Scandinavia, where ecological considerations and environmental awareness are given the highest priority.

A LEGENDARY STADIUM In Johannesburg, there is a legendary football sta-dium, which seated 84,890 spectators (the maxi-mum capacity is 94,736) at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It was here that Nelson Mandela gave his first speech after his release from prison in 1990. Products from Olivé Química were used in the building of the stadium. The stadium being built in Russia for the 2018 World Cup is currently on hold, but we hope that the fine achievements of our Russian team will carry through to products in the construction of this building.

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Krimelte’s Export Manager Stig Bredahl is considered by his colleagues to be the ultimate salesman. Working alone from Denmark, Stig stresses the importance of empathy with the

whole wolf pack in order to be successful.

“ALWAYS KEEP DEADLINES,” is one of the first things Stig says and to which he attributes his success in sales. He has been working for Krimelte for 8 years, though he has known the com-pany and its founders Jaan Puusaag and Jaanus Paeväli from the very beginning. 21 years ago Stig was working as an ex-port manager for a Danish company, Baxenden Scandinavia, one of the first manufacturers of polyurethane (PU) foams in Denmark. He got a call from Jaan; Krimelte was recently established, had a potential customer in Russia and needed a supplier of PU foams. Stig tells the story about the importance of keep-ing to deadlines and how he became fa-miliar with Krimelte. “A Dutch company Jaan first contacted never came back with a price quotation. You must always keep deadlines and promises and though it sounds very simple, many fail to do it. If this Dutch company had responded on time and done as promised, I would have never met Jaan.”

There is more to the simple rule Stig has been following all his life. “Keeping deadlines may be something you can’t do for many reasons, for example, be-cause of work going on with product de-velopment. There may be a problem with delivery or some other simple issue, but in such cases I always go back to the

Our Lone Wolf in the

Heart of Europe

customer and say: “Sorry, we have this issue here, can we find a solution?” Stig is convinced that this rule should be ap-plied not only to professional, but also personal life.

Know Your StrengthsStig is sure - to be successful it is impor-tant to know your strengths. “To be hon-est, I’m empathic and very good at devel-oping relationships with customers. I’m good at opening doors, no matter whose they are.” Stig adds that this is a trait rather typical of Danes, who are natu-

“I’M QUITE TEAM-ORIENTED BECAUSE I

KNOW THAT THERE IS A LIMIT TO THE THINGS I AM GOOD AT. IN MOST

CASES, I’M NOT THE ONLY PERSON WHO ACHIEVES SUCCESS. IT IS USUALLY

A TEAM EFFORT”

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rally quite curious. Knowing his strengths helped Stig put together a team with good synergy. “I’m quite team-oriented because I know that there is a limit to the things I am good at. In most cases, I’m not the only person who achieves success. It is usually a team ef-fort.” Stig also feels that you should lis-ten carefully to clients, be aware of their needs and know everything about your products, the markets and trends.

Jim Fitzsimons, Managing Director of Olivé Química’s UK Division, met Stig to discuss business in 2013 when his com-pany had just begun to purchase PU foams from Krimelte “If I could summa-rize Stig’s qualities it would simply be to say he is the ultimate professional sales-person with great selling skills. He is al-ways polite, good humoured and availa-ble 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year”. Jim and Stig kept in contact after the meeting, which in-volved visiting Liverpool’s Everton Foot-ball Club, a team Jim has followed since he was a child. It now also has Stig as a fan. Jim added, “Little did we know that in March 2014 we would now be col-leagues in the Wolf Group. This gave us both a big opportunity to attack and close some big volume business which had not been open to us in the past. We’ve worked very closely planning a strategy which has been very successful and brought us good results from ‘blue chip’ companies. This will continue and with co-operation from all of our Wolf Group team we will plot more avenues to attack and prosper”.

A Disciplined Wolf Stig works from his home in Denmark’s countryside, something he enjoys as he feels he is more productive that way. Working from home is not for everybody and he admits that you need to do so in a disciplined way for it to work. Stig ex-plained, “I start the day typically at 6.00 or 6:30 in the morning and go on until 3.00 to 3:30 in the afternoon. I go swim-ming every day as long as I’m not travel-ling on business but will be back at 7.00 in the evening to work for another hour or more. I like it this way”.

The first thing he does each morning is to make an agenda for the day. “It is easy to just sit and work step by step, but you will never be more effective if you don’t write down some targets and goals. I do it every day as I try to make the most

out of my time as possible. If you are well prepared, you will be more focused on what you are doing. Otherwise you can shoot but you will never succeed”.

Everything has its pros and cons and working at home can mean that if you aren’t socializing during the day you lag behind with information that circulates around the office. But Stig travels several times every month either to Estonia or to see customers and he gets his share of social interaction this way.

Stig is cheerful, tells stories and jokes that he is “an old hippie” expressing his love for 1960’s music. He has seen most of the popular bands from the time when rock ’n ’roll revolutionized music and has a collection of more than 10,000 al-bums. “Music is a funny thing because either it works or it doesn’t. When you see it performed live, you appreciate it at its very best, but not always,” says Stig, who still goes to see some of the old su-perstars in concert .

GRAND OLD MAN IN FOAM BUSINESS When I joined the Wolf Group six years ago and started interacting with customers, I began hearing unusually positive stories about a legendary salesman who always brought a smile to their faces, made contact at the promised time and never left them in the dark.

Around the same time, our busi-ness came to the realization that we needed ’our man in Havana’, that is to say someone to represent us in Western Europe. Jaan Puusaag suggested that I call Stig, even though by that point he was no longer with us. We always try to make important things happen very quickly and this proved to be no exception. Two hours later the agreement was in place for Stig to work for us again.

Stig is a grand old man in the foam business: he knows in detail every distinctive feature of our company and its products as well as those of our main competitors. He is one of those salesmen who shoots like an extremely precise sniper.

As a person, Stig is always a pleasant travelling companion. We share a passion for live music and despite our age difference, we are fans of the same bands: we both like the Rolling Stones and AC/DC. Stig always prefers live perfor-mances and for him it is no prob-lem to interrupt his vacation, if he hears, for example, that Paul McCa-rtney is performing in Stig’s home-land, Denmark.

MARGUS VIHMANGroup Sales DirectorKrimelte / Wolf Group

Stig opens up about his ethos in sales: “Keeping deadlines may be some-thing you can’t do for many reasons, for example, because of work going on with product development. There may be a problem with delivery or some other simple issue, but in such cases I always go back to the customer and say: “Sorry, we have this issue here, can we find a solution?”

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EasyPRO will make customer’s life easier

A product range with

clear labels to identify

the right sealant

solution

PRODUCT

WOLF GROUP has great news this au-tumn – we have launched a new product line called EasyPRO. What is so special about it? Three key factors should be men-tioned: firstly, the industrial sealant market experience of Olivé Química and the retail market experience of Krimelte have been combined in this new line. Secondly, each EasyPRO product has 10-year lifetime and, last but not least, the concept is made so clear for the end consumer that the require-ments of 5-second decision making are all met.

YEARS LIFETIMEMINIMUM

AUTUMN | WINTER 20156 wolf tales

TEXT: TIIT ARRO, DOVYDAS AUŠTRAS

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PRODUCT

THE EASYPRO CONCEPT OFFERS A WEALTH OF SOLUTIONSIn store, standing in front of shelves the end user invariably faces too many ma-nufacturer and product choices. The 5-second decision making principle, with the support of easy-to-understand POS, literature and web support will save them time and money and avoid the need to seek advice and information.

Confusion arises with product ranges which are too extensive. EasyPRO covers all home sealing solutions in a limited, carefully selected range. That means less shelf space is needed, stock management is easier and products are sold long before ‘best before’ dates are reached. Selling value-added products is the challenge. In-dustrial technology has come into the home, offering a unique standard of perfor-mance and modern packaging design. This will generate more revenue and margin and require lower discounts. It is hard to win and maintain customer loyalty but our 10-year service life promise demonstrates the Wolf Group’s confidence in and com-mitment to the brand. Our key promise is that it will save money by using products which last longer and help reduce environmental impact. Without the need to repair or re-seal, money spent on replacement products and labour is saved and less waste goes to landfill. This will create a higher level of customer satisfaction, the ef-fect being that buying patterns currently based on price will shift to become ones driven by quality.

Lack of product familiarity is a big problem but patented EasyPRO tools like Easy-Gun foam applicators give an excellent user experience which will increase the like-lihood of repeat purchase.

The EasyPRO range is small but at the same time covers every likely sealing solution.

In terms of range size, one of the world’s leading innovators, Apple, pro-vides the perfect example of a company which has deliberately limited options to make choice simpler. Now, Wolf Group is taking a similar approach by offering specific sealing solutions for insulation, energy saving, mould resistance, weather-proofing and filling & painting. All to ensure the best possible user expe-rience. The long term goal is to become a global leader in construction sealants.

Inspiration for the new retail concept came 3 years ago when the Krimelte marketing and sales teams brainstormed ideas for targeting the North American market. Tiit Arro, Wolf Group’s Business Development and Marketing Director recalls, “One of the aims was to have a concept that is scalable around the globe so we decided 18 months ago to adapt the concept for the European market as well.

60 years of experience combinedThe EasyPRO range is small but at the same time covers all sealing solutions.

It offers high quality formulations based on the combined knowledge of the Olivé Química, 40 years of experience, and Krimelte, 20 years of experience, re-search and development teams. Thanks to the Olivé Química merger with the Wolf Group a wider range of industrial /professional products can be offered. Those recipes in the EasyPRO range are, without question, the best available as they have been formulated for the most demanding applications and industries.

The long lifetime and best user experience of EasyPRO Given that the quality of the product would be the best possible, the question of user experience was vital in product development. To fine tune the retail con-cept, the Wolf Group worked closely with a Spanish design and brand devel-opment agency Summa:, which pro-vided them with highly professional input to the project throughout. Based on the design brief Summa: came up with three attractive creative options. Tiit comments: “The one we decided on, supports our retail concept best as the packaging designs and POS display guide consumers quickly to the right

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Comment:IT’S A PERFECT COMBINATION!OLIVÉ QUÍMICA Portugal S.A. Key Account Manager João Mamede added, “When the concept was pre-sented to me, I felt that we were of-fering the right number of solutions to meet user needs. It was easy to understand the concept’s logic; we are building something that can only be successful because it was conceived to make life easier for consumers. And when all said and done, carefully developed marketing strategies designed for end users are invariably successful”. “The focus of our concept has been to make it work for consumers! They have been at the heart of every decision in the range’s development in order to en-sure that they will empathise with it. In my opinion, the concept carries considerable added value and is about more than products in a car-tridge or can. We have a sealant so-lution for every application in the home. The entire range of Penosil products was designed strategically but the EasyPRO concept offers the combination of experience from both Olivé Quimica and the Wolf Group. And that’s a perfect combi-nation!”

product. This gives a favourable buying experience rather than one which is lengthy and painful. This is all the more important when you consider how diffi-cult it can be to get advice from store staff”. Dovydas Auštras, Wolf Group’s Retail Sales Development Manager added, “As far as the retail market is con-cerned, we are looking ahead to how it will look in 5 years’ time. Our analysis showed that the business model for seal-ants in the retail sector will be similar to that for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG)”. The EasyPRO concept was de-veloped to provide construction products with an FMCG emphasis for the retail market. Dovydas continued, “The con-cept’s unique points are that a focussed range covers all sealing solutions with products which are genuinely innovative. With the help of EasyPRO tools that means quick and easy product applica-tion.”

5-second decision making principleEnd users such as the average DIY buyer take no more than 5 seconds to decide which product to buy. Key factors which we believe will have a dramatic impact in that selection are:• 10-year lifetime for all products

• A brand new, contemporary label style which has been created on the principle of providing ‘instant focus.

The design philosophy is that all prod-ucts are application-based and have la-bels that are quick and easy to under-stand. All the decision-making factors are illustrated on the main product face. Of course, the concept will evolve based on consumer feedback. Tiit gives an ex-ample. “Our labels used to include de-tails of a product’s usability temperature range but we removed this information when developing the EasyPRO concept. Based on user comments, however, it be-came clear how important this was to them so we made the decision to rein-state it”. Dovydas explained, “The end user doesn’t need to make decisions based on opinion as the labels contain everything he needs. In fact the informa-tion is likely to exceed his expectations”. Our aim is to provide end user satisfac-tion, a good product experience and, ul-timately, loyalty to the brand. EasyPRO products are already available in Lithua-nia and Portugal and target markets over the next few months will be Estonia, Lat-via and Spain. The concept will be avail-able in all countries with Wolf Group sales subsidiaries and active resellers.

PRODUCT

The EasyPRO concept was developed to provide construction products with an FMCG emphasis for the retail market.

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PARTNER

IF GERMAN CHEMIST Otto Bayer had not discovered polyurethane in 1937 the world today might not be as bright a place as it is. It was Bayer who mixed two chemical substances and invented the PU foam by pure chance and to begin with. To begin with nobody knew what to do with what looked like Swiss cheese.

Today, polyurethanes can be found almost everywhere and contribute to the quality of modern life. “Polyurethane is a very versatile product and today has uses as wide ranging as insulation in construction, furniture and and motor-vehicles. “All the car seats in the world are made from polyurethane and every fridge and freezer is insulated with it” says Niko Palosuo, Head of Global Com-munications for the polyurethane busi-ness unit at Covestro, the company for which Bayer worked.

Nearly 80 years later, Covestro, based in Leverkusen, Germany, is one of the world’s largest polymer companies. It manufactures high-tech polymers and develops innovative solutions for many products which are a feature of everyday life. Covestro has 30 production sites and employs around 16,500 people worldwide.

Long-standing relationshipCovestro has a long-standing relation-ship with Krimelte which dates back more than ten years. Krimelte was one of the companies which, quite early on, started to produce products based on polyurethanes. Covestro supplies Krimelte with MDI (methylene diphenyl diisocynate), a polyurethane raw mate-

rial which is the main constituent in one-pack polyurethane foam. It is MDI that foams when the genie is out of the can. Covestro also provides Krimelte with ex-pertise on chemical formulations for its factories in Russia and Spain. Covestro has a warehouse facility in Tallinn which enables Krimelte to maintain continu-ous production through receipt of chem-icals at very short notice. “We are happy to see that Krimelte appreciates the quality of materials we supply them” says Niko.

Growing business Insulation is a growing business around the world, but especially in Nordic coun-tries where there is a particular need to renovate and upgrade homes. One-com-ponent foams are used widely to install windows and doors as Niko explains. “The level of co-operation between our companies is good. It is solid, as we know that Krimelte staff are highly trust-worthy. What we agree also happens. It is good to have a strategic partner who you can trust and Krimelte is an impor-tant and growing customer in the one-component foam sector. They are a big player and are expanding so we look for-ward to growing with them”.

KRIMELTE AND COVESTRO – TRUSTWORTHY PARTNERSHIP

� e secret of doing great business - a strategic partner you can trust. We introduce a company that has a long-standing rela-tionship with Krimelte.

ABOUT COVESTRO:

• Worldwide sales in 2014 of €11.7 billion with pre-tax profit of €1.19 billion

• Biggest market is Europe with 38% of sales, followed by Asia/ Pacific 28%, North America 22% and America, Africa and the Midd-le East 12%

• Main markets are automotive, electrical and electronics, const-ruction and sports and leisure

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MAP

Wolf Group is:• present in 78 countries• 4 production units

located in Tallinn (Estonia), Barcelona (Spain), Moscow (Russia), and São Paulo (Brazil)

• 10 sales units: one in each of the Baltic States, Uk-raine, Romania, Denmark, Spain, France, Portugal and the United Kingdom

Wolf Group World Map

CIS & ASSOCIATED: Russia Ukraine (Associate, 1993) Kazakhstan Belarus Moldova Georgia (non-CIS, 2009)

EUROPE Baltic states: Estonia Latvia Lithuania Western Europe: Andorra Austria Belgium Germany Ireland Italy France Netherlands Portugal Spain Switzerland United Kingdom Central Europe: Poland Hungary Czech Republic Slovakia Nordics: Denmark GreenlandFinland Norway Sweden

South-Eastern Europe: Bosnia-Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Greece Romania SerbiaSlovenia TurkeyMacedonia

NORTH AMERICA: USACanada

LATIN AMERICA: Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Cuba Dominican Rep. Mexico Paraguay Peru Uruguay Venezuela

AFRICA Ghana Israel South Africa

NORTH AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST:Algeria Dubai Libya Morocco Oman Qatar Tunisia UAE

ASIA: China India Japan Hong-Kong Mongolia Korea

OCEANIA: Australia New Zealand

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MAP

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THE INCONSISTENCIES OF SUSTAINABILITY IN CONSTRUCTION

Buildings and their construction account for around 40% of worldwide consump-tion of resources and 30% of energy generation. Even so, despite the many initiatives in recent years to produce more sustainable building products, in some countries there has been signi� cant pressure on Governments to deregulate.

Sustainable buildings require high performance so the roof win-dows in this project had to meet a range of performance standards.

IN THE UK, this has reduced pressure on house builders to move away from long-standing procurement practices which many feel encourage a commodity approach to the detriment of quality. A ‘Sustainable Procurement Task Force’ therefore defined sustainable procure-ment as “a process whereby organisa-tions meet their needs for goods, ser-vices, works and utilities in a way that achieves value for money on a whole life basis and generates benefits not only to the supplier, but to society and the econ-omy, while minimising damage to the environment.”

For now, however, private sector con-struction still relies heavily on ‘lowest tender pricing’ despite greater pressure for better quality due to improving building standards. As a result, many

manufacturers have found it difficult to justify the development costs of prod-ucts which may be more expensive but benefit a building over its design life.

Looking at the positivesAnd yet there are considerable grounds for optimism. Though the target for zero carbon construction in the UK has been postponed until 2020, the perceived value of energy efficiency standards such as Passivhaus is slowly, and against many forecasts, increasing. Passive

House Institute testing and certification carries considerable weight and is al-ready common in many of the developed economies. For self-builders in particu-lar such eco-certification provides a way to check which products can be trusted and evaluate the cost against long-term benefit. Natureplus®, a pan-European Association also promotes sustainable use of resources and tests building prod-ucts to ensure they have no adverse im-pact on health. While other standards accommodate a degree of offsetting, all

INDUSTRY

TEXT: NIGEL PITTMAN

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elements of Natureplus testing must produce the same high standard of per-formance. As such, this has encouraged higher standards of sustainability in mainland Europe.

Regulations encouraging better qualityTighter building regulations have how-ever begun to prompt widespread intro-duction to the construction sector of products developed for more demanding uses. Sealants manufactured by the Wolf group for the nuclear, aerospace and ship building industries are finding fa-vour despite construction’s traditional treatment of such products as commodi-ties. Higher quality materials invariably come from companies showing greater environmental responsibility, and this too is a factor which is at last coming onto many buyers’ agendas. This has knocked on to new products for which, until recently, it would have been incon-

ceivable to see sealants and tapes devel-oped purely for a specialist function such as a building’s airtightness. Mandatory tests for air leakage have shown the im-mediate and long-term value of these unseen and relatively expensive building accessories and the vital functions they perform. Sealing laps in underlays, fill-ing holes for pipework penetrations and services to photovoltaic panels reduce energy consumption but perhaps more importantly, airtight construction invar-iably provides a far better internal work-ing and living environment.

Too many claim their products are sustainableA product’s true sustainability however, can be difficult to determine in a market where everyone wants to lay claim to eco-credentials. Timber is a good exam-ple as, despite having been among the first materials to establish an acknowl-edged standard for responsible sourcing

and management, until 2014 there were still major problems with the quality of products such as roof battens. This has been addressed with the consolidation of EU standards in countries such as the UK with products now requiring a qual-ity compliance mark. With the support of the internationally recognised Pro-gramme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) and Forest Stew-ardship Council (FSC) chain of custody certification, it is now extremely difficult to ignore environmental responsibility.

Unfortunately, many argue that prod-ucts can still be described as sustainable if their use improves overall building performance or if they just have a ‘low’ carbon footprint. The irony is that this can be to the detriment of many natural products such as slate, the manufacture of which often involves a high degree of waste. They may also score poorly for no other reason than the distance involved in transporting them. However, the Building Research Establishment Envi-ronmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) was the first and remains the most widely used sustainability standard for commercial buildings.

Waste still a problem There is an irony in the fact that while manufacturers throughout the world continue to develop more sustainable products, there is still a massive amount of waste on many building sites. Be-tween 20-30% of what goes to landfill consistently comes from building and demolition and figures of up to 13% have been recorded of unused materials being disposed of in such a way. Fortu-nately, material return schemes should make this a thing of the past in the fore-seeable future but in the face of such waste carbon offsetting seems a point-less exercise. Ultimately, better stand-ards in construction will reduce waste while also encouraging greater efficiency and for manufacturers and builders whose ethos is based on quality this can only be good news.

Even fast-track buildings are being uprated in terms of sus-tainability. Who do you think this building belongs to?

Answer: McDonald’s!

INDUSTRY

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GALLERY

Initiating new Wolf cubsThis year’s Krimelte Summer days were held on Au-gust 8th at the Rebasemäe picnic grounds of the Tallinn Zoo. A good deal was closed out of respect for the weather but as a break from the rainy, cool summer the sun shone that day and not a drop of rain fell. This was truly ideal weather for spending a family weekend. There were plenty of good things to eat and drink, as well as activities for everyone, big or small. The Tireless Auntie organized enough interesting games and activities to keep the children busy for the whole day. Whoever wished to could have their face painted, stamp a coin, or polish a nice necklace out of the world’s softest stone for themselves or as a gift for a friend. All of this was not just meant for children: families enga-ged in happy cooperation created many colourful works of art. Those who had courage and strength to spare could test their skills at shooting a bow or crossbow or throwing an axe. As is the custom, at the end of the day the best received awards and the new wolf cubs were initiated.

And accompanied by pleasant guides, guests also toured the zoo and met many different kinds of ani-mals, those with cloven hooves as well as feathered friends. Our wolf pack was treated to much new and exciting knowledge.

Alar Salum, Krimelte’s Managing director, with two of his kids.

Tiit Arro, Business Development and Strategic Marketing director.

Reigo Oras, Krimelte’s Purchise Director, with family.

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GALLERY

In July, the Krimelte Russia factory at Zhukovsky in the Moscow oblast celebrated the tenth anniversary of their registration as a business. The festive occasion was marked by the Krimelte Russia board of directors and office personnel on September 24th with a truly Russian-style feast, that is with laden tables.

A Russian-Style Feast

The team of Krimelte Russia celebrating.

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EVER SINCE we came into contact with he at Baxenden Scandinavia, he has had a major impact on many of our decisions. In particular, the deci-sion to start the production of PU foam here in Estonia. Henning has worked for us in the capacity of advi-sor and auditor since 1998.

He will be remembered as a good employee and a family man - Henning and Alice lived together for 30 years, marrying 8 years ago.

Henning has always been a passion-ate angler and has travelled most of the world to find the absolute best fishing spots.

In Denmark Henning had a large personal network; he has always been very active in local associations. He has been part of St. George guilds in Sorø for many years.

Henning was never afraid to ex-press his views, which were based on a deep understanding and knowledge of the subjects that were discussed; whenever he had something to say, it would contribute positively to a dis-cussion.

To illustrate this, I recall a meeting in PU Schaum Group (FEICA today) that Henning attended. Because of a major fire at Baxenden Scandinavia it was discussed whether or not to end the use of propane/butane propel-lants. After endless discussions, Hen-ning got tired of the bureaucrats’ at-tempts to restore the old propellants. He stood up in the assembly and asked - “What is important – the burning-down of a simple warehouse or eliminating the ozone layer?”

Unfortunately Henning had not cleared this with the CEO of Baxenden Scandinavia (Jørgen Judson), so Jør-gen had to use all his influence and diplomatic skills to calm the troubled waters and placate the members of the PU Schaum Group.

Not having Henning among us any-more is a big loss of a big personality, a great mentor and a dear friend. Henning will continue to have a major influence on our production of PU foams well into the future.

Henning, you will always be remembered and be in our hearts.

REMEMBERING A GREAT MENTORThere have been very few people who have contributed as much to Krimelte’s growth from the beginning. From the moment we made a decision to start manufacturing PU foams in Estonia, Henning was the only one who knew what it meant to do so. I didn’t have a clue. He was here to choose the right building and to adjust it according to our needs. We spent many days and nig-hts together at our small plant getting the machines up and running. Henning never worried about time or working hours. He was a great mentor for me and I learned a lot. He never compromised safety. Once I asked him if we really needed an EX ventilator for the lab because it is so much more expensive. I will never forget his answer – „when your building is on fire, you will learn what expensive means!“ After we got started I asked Henning to visit our fac-tory every year in order just to walk around and tell us where he thought we should do things differently. Many things he taught I only understood years later.

His last long visit was two years ago. It was more than 7 years since his last visit and this time we felt we had really impressed him. Fully automated packaging lines, injection moulding, new office and production facili-ties. This time I could really feel that we had gained our mentor’s approval.

Thank you, Henning, for being a mentor and a friend!

JAAN PUUSAAG, Chairman of Krimelte / Wolf Group

In Memory of HENNING NYGÅRD – the Great Danish Viking

It was with great sadness that we received the news of Henning Nygård’s death. Henning reached only 64 years of age.TEXT: STIG BREDAHL

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Goodbye, DANEL PLEIATS Wolf Group was deeply shaken by the sad news that Danel Pleiats, plastics production department manager at OÜ Krimelte had passed away on 04.11.2015.

DANEL JOINED our company 5 years ago, and he was the initiator of the injection moulding project of OÜ Krimelte. Until now, he had been in charge of the entire plastics production department.

Before Wolf Group, Danel had worked in different plastics production compa-nies for 20 years. He once said that his education comes from high school and the university of life.

His dedicated work brought him much respect and recognition, both within Krimelte and among the partner companies. In 2010, he became Wolf Cub of the year. Danel was awarded the title of Leader Wolf in 2014.

Alar Salum, Managing Director of Krimelte / Wolf Group: “We have lost a true wolf, a great colleague, a profes-sional manager, and just a beautiful per-son … he was just 43… In our hearts and thoughts we are with Danel’s family – his wife Kristel and their two kids.”

TESTIMONIALS

I first met Danel in April 2011 when I came to work for Krimelte. We worked together for four and a half years. During this time we became close colleagues and friends.

We shared an interest in fishing - he fished mostly in Estonia, but traditionally I would also fish once a year in Norway. I spread the Norwegian fishing bug to Danel as well. For two summers we travelled to-gether to that land where nature is so mys-tically beautiful.

I have fine, brightly coloured memories of those trips that can be relished for a long time to come. We had already made ar-rangements for next year`s trip to Norway. Unfortunately, Danel can no longer partici-pate in these adventures, but he will cer-tainly look down on our fishing from some-place above and comment on it to himself.

It would be hard to find a better co-worker. Danel was an inseparable member of our department who kept the whole team pleasantly hopping.

Our work environment was hardly peaceful and monotonous. Something new was happening every day, and often we would have to “bring the chestnuts out of the fire”. Danel knew how to do that, and he would remain calm despite everything.

One should cherish one´s good friends and co-workers. Let us care about one an-other!

Danel, keep up the good work wherever you are out there, carrying on with your many activities. You were the best!

JANARI TALVISTU, Warehouse Manager, OÜ Krimelte

He gave his all to the job. He always had an extraordinary work ethic and perseverance in achieving the goal at hand. Danel was always ready to extend a helping hand. In all th e years of working with him, I did not encounter a single situation where he would not be willing to help. At work, he liked discipline and was a demanding leader. He liked to work well but also to relax well. As a friend, he was always kind and positive in every situation. He loved his family and talked about his children with respect and pride. Such people are very few. It’s unfair that the best ones leave so early.

IGOR ŠVEDOVSKI, Technical Director, OÜ Krimelte

Danel has left his mark forever at Krimelte in the form of the plastics casting de-partment. He was the one who chose the machinery and moulds for us and trained his whole team. From our first meeting it was clear that he was a technocrat, and this was expressed in everything he did. Danel once said to me that plastics are both his work and his hobby, all wrapped up together. In this spirit he developed and led his department. Danel was conti-nually seeking ways to add new products to the work portfolio, as well as to make the existing products better. Often when I came to work on a weekend, I would find Danel already there and busy.

He was always cheerful, and even in the worst situations he would remain calm and crack jokes. Danel was a role model for those who answered to him, and certainly for his colleagues as well. One could hardly wish for a better team member.

I will always remember Danel as a won-derful person!

MEELIS BERGMANN, Production Director, OÜ Krimelte

Danel was the sort of man who could be compared to all the others and always come out the best, both as a co-worker and outside the workplace.

As soon as the topic of producing plas-tics came up, his eyes would begin to glow and there would be enough to talk about for quite awhile. I was amazed how he could remain so calm in stressful situations where my own blood pressure was already approaching 200. I took Danel as a role model as I tried to cultivate such calmness in myself.

It would be difficult to overestimate Danel`s contribution to the creation of team spirit. Danel was the soul of our social gatherings: without him a fishing trip would not be a fishing trip, and a party would not be a party.

IVO LAAN, Production Manager, OÜ Krimelte

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INSIGHT

“MY NAME HAS become synony-mous with Axapta in this company,” says Jano Kahr laughing. He is Group Info-system Consultant for the Wolf Group and the person who introduced Axapta (officially named Microsoft Dynamics AX) to Krimelte back in 2005. Since then, he has been responsible for imple-menting the system at all of the rapidly expanding company’s different loca-tions.

According to Jano, Axapta has grown to become the backbone of the company. “Absolutely everything in the Wolf Group begins and ends with it. Our whole business, from production, buy-ing, planning, resources, warehousing and of course sales and finance is driven by the system,” he says. One of Axapta’s main assets is that it provides a single source of information about the status of the whole group, including its different branches and departments.

No time for sightseeingThe Portuguese and Spanish branches of the Wolf Group are the latest to imple-ment Axapta, with Olivé Spain going live as recently as July. The whole project in Spain came at significant cost and took six months. At the start there were prob-lems and a few setbacks, but the final outcome was smooth. “Our initial plan was to launch Axapta at the beginning of June, but we lost almost two months in negotiations with our local Axapta part-ner” says Jano. This meant postpone-ment of our go-live date and at one point even July didn’t seem to be realistic. Our next chance would not have been until January and with the fear of losing an-other six months, it was full speed ahead.”

For Jano, this meant being in Spain every other week and working 12-14 hour days. Even though Olivé Spain is very close to Barcelona, he didn’t even have the time or energy to discover Cata-lonia’s capital. “It was a very difficult project for many reasons,” Jano says. Firstly, Olivé is a large 40-year old com-pany with a long history and tradition of

how it does things. Secondly, the com-pany had a bad experience seven years ago when they tried to introduce a simi-lar system so it was understandable that they were quite sceptical. Thirdly, at the time the company was facing other pres-sures such as implementation of a new brand and a high level of orders which caused the factory to be working at full capacity.”

Double advantage for SpainNevertheless, the deadline to go live in July was met and Jano says that the pro-cess was actually much smoother than anticipated.

Luis Olivé Palau, the Managing Direc-tor at Olivé Química S.A. agrees that Axapta’s implementation was successful. “It is always difficult to change to a new ERP (enterprise resource planning), but in this case we had two advantages,” Luis says. “One was that the old Navision sys-tem was something like a little sister of Axapta. The second was that they were able to copy the setup of Krimelte in Es-tonia. As a result, there were no major is-sues when the new system went live.” Luis emphasises that over the next months the challenge will be to maximise advantages that Axapta will bring such as improving organization, getting better coordination between departments and more efficient planning. Olive’s Portu-guese branch implemented Axapta shortly before Spain. “To begin with, Axapta did not seem easy to use. We had many questions about a programme which was quite complex” admits João Mamede, Key Account Manager at OLIVÉ QUÍMICA Portugal S.A. “But Jano has helped immensely by training us so that we have been able to adapt and work through some difficulties.”

Next: the UK and FranceJoão says that now everyone works with clear access to all information which, among its many advantages, speeds up customer response. “We are constantly adapting to a programme like this, be-cause for each new issue that comes up day-to-day Axapta has the solution.”

So, what’s next? There are still a cou-ple of branches that have yet to imple-ment Axapta and Jano says the question is not ‘if’, but ‘when’. “The next in line is probably the UK and ultimately we’ll also launch it in France too.” Jano says that no deadlines have been set yet, but the first steps will probably be taken next year.

The Wolf keeps extending its reach

Jano’s Detour to ColumbusThe Wolf Group’s road to Axapta was quite rocky. Back in 2003 the company operated using three different Excel sheets - one for sales, one for production and one for purchasing. Due to the rate of its growth a specialized ERP was needed.

After a few mishaps the company found Columbus IT who didn’t just sell an Axapta license but the whole package. “It’s a long process to ana-lyse, design and implement Axapta for a company,” says Jano. “Together with Columbus we got the system working.” As one thing led to an-other, Jano ultimately decided to join the Columbus team and be-came their Axapta consultant.

“I was lucky to work with a lot of different clients who needed to make full use of Axapta. It really was a good education for me.” In 2010, having become a true Axapta spe-cialist Jano rejoined the Wolf Group. Columbus remains the company’s partner and continues to help with every aspect of Axapta today.

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Young parents Vjatšeslav Soots Vladimir April 2015 Julia Volkova Ilja May 2015 Vassõl Himišinets Anna June 2015 Aleksei Murov Diana June 2015 Marina Kurichenkova German August 2015 Janno Vilba Carita August 2015 Dominika Laidinen and Jano Kahr Alexandra September 2015 Dmitri Mironov Darja September 2015Urmas Kullang Karl Sander September 2015Ruslan Simagin Richard October 2015

Nice to meet you Mihaela Boldeanu Sales assistant March 2015 Rolands Naglis Project manager March 2015Frederic Deboosere Sales representative April 2015 Joao Mamede Sales manager April 2015Alexander Fabian Gonzales Diaz Production worker April 2015Maris Puust Secretary May 2015 Sebastian Bisoc Sales manager May 2015 Konstantin Akkerman Mixing specialist May 2015 Mircea-Andrei Oprea Production worker May 2015 Francisco Talavera Head accountant June 2015Antonio Garcia Coll Production worker June 2015Urmas Kullang Sales manager June 2015Yuriy Zhdan Sales manager June 2015Tatjana Aleksejeva Assembly line June 2015Reelika Põld packaging assistant June 2015Jana Gribovitš Assembly line June 2015Kristi Loot Human resources specialist July 2015Andres Maasikamäe Automatician July 2015Ivan Gil Jimenez Production worker July 2015Jevgeni Matvejev Operator August 2015Reelike Luik-Silm Packager August 2015Dmitri Januško Operator August 2015Vladislav Epelbaum Warehouse worker August 2015Alexander Borisov Operator August 2015Sergei Dubravin Operator August 2015Valeri Võbornov Mixing specialist August 2015Igor Volkov Operator August 2015Jorge Simões Sales representative September 2015 Mihail Gontar Assembly line September 2015Luiza Arhipova Assembly line September 2015Anne Lulla Sales assistant September 2015Mariann Reismaa Assembly line September 2015Julia Sosenkova Development assistant September 2015Teet Tiik Operator October 2015 Anna Valeeva Assembly line October 2015Kirill Andreev Operator October 2015Sergei Tsõkoza Operator October 2015Roman Fjodorov Operator October 2015Jaanika Press Assembly line October 2015Kirke Raud E-Marketing Manager October 2015Jorge Delgado Product Manager October 2015

Oldies 5 YEARS Aleksandr Kobzev October 2015Stig Flemming Bredahl October 2015Genadi Dacenko November 2015Irene Džemileva November 2015Jim Fitzsimons November 2015Liz Fitzsimons November 2015Pille Alder December 2015Jano Kahr December 2015Ilja Zamjatin December 2015

7 YEARS Meelis Klimov September 2015Lauri Leitorp September 2015Aleksandr Arhipov September 2015Oleg Novikov September 2015Asko Kerdi October 2015Kaisi Soitu October 2015Annely Iskül November 2015

10 YEARS Vilaça Helder September 2015Meelis Bergmann September 2015Fabien Houzé October 2015Elvis Takkis October 2015Rain Titov November 2015Deniss Anutšin December 2015Veikko Kadakas December 2015

15 YEARS Margarita Jimenez Pozo September 2015Carlos Gil Jimenez September 2015Mercedes Jimenez Pozo September 2015Nuria Mitjans Arnal September 2015Manuela Sanchez Fernandez September 2015Juana Cardenas Soria September 2015

20 YEARS Eduardo Ranchal Pina November 2015Eva Novell Castillo December 2015

35 YEARS Miguel Camacho Caňete Septmeber 2015Aurelio Coll Hernandez September 2015

NewlywedsReelika and Tarmo Nork August 2015

Happy Birthday SEPTEMBER 2015 Age DateAlberto Cabre Mendez 40 September 14Annely Iskül 35 September 17Tatjana Aleksejeva 30 September 18

OCTOBER 2015

Marina Kurichenkova 30 October 2Adrian Sanchez Puig 30 October 16 Josefa Marin Alvarez 55 October 22 NOVEMBER 2015 Anna Valeeva 30 November 13 Olga Lunova 60 November 16Riina Rebane 60 November 16Irina Kvasova 30 November 19Dmitri Filatov 30 November 22Antoni Bru Barrancos 55 November 29 DECEMBER 2015 Eikki Kari 40 December 03Dominika Laidinen 30 December 08Ülar Heinoja 55 December 18Sergei Tsõkoza 40 December 25

CONGRATULATIONS!

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First National Bank Stadium, also known as Soccer City and The Cala-bash, is a stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa. Olivé Química products have extensively been used in this stadium’s const-ruction.

Info: Wolf GroupCoordinator: Philip P. PhilipoffSuur-Paala 10, 13619 Tallinn, EstoniaPhone: + 372 6059 300 Fax: +372 6059 315 E-mail: [email protected]

Produced by:Menu Content AgencyEditor: Anu Lillwww.menuk.ee

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