Norwegian Hjellegjerde, a sofa and recliner maker, is about to start producing on its second location in Lithuania as the company has decided to concentrate all its manufacturing activities in the country.
Original author:
bnn
Published: 18.05.2012
"We are extremely satisfied with what we have achieved in Lithuania, in our Hjellegjerde Baltija plant in central Panevezys, therefore we have decided to move to Lithuania all production that we have," says Olav Røyset, CEO of Hjellegjerde and the company's sole owner Møbelinvest Holding, to news2biz.
"This will include the remaining part of Hjellegjerde's own range and that of Hødnebø, one of Norway's oldest and best known exclusive fur-niture producers that recently went bankrupt and whose estate Møbelinvest has acquired," he adds.
Hødnebø's was based in Risør, a town of 7,000 inhabitants in south-ern Norway. The company's range includes sofas, chairs, dining sets as well as its most valuable and inter-nationally renowned product, the Spinnaker chair.
While all administrative, market-ing and product development functions will stay in Norway's Stavanger, the production relocation process has involved setting up a second manufacturing base in Lithuania.
"The Panevezys plant was built-to-suit for us in 2007. Last year there were periods when we were exceed-ing its capacity – obviously we did not expect that our sales performance will use up the Panevezys capacity so fast," Røyset says.