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Almost 90% of the European output of Bauwerk Boen Group, Europe’s second-largest parquet manufacturer, will be produced Lithuania. During the last four years the company has relocated most of its parquet and hardwood flooring production facilities to Kietaviškės, Elektrėnai Municipality (Central Lithuania). The volume of the overall investment amounts to LTL240 million (Rs.550 crore), the Business News Desk of All-Lithuania Radio reports.

Since 2010, Kietaviškės has been operating as the production hub of the company’s Norwegian leg, Boen, which was merged with the Swiss company Bauwerk Parkett in 2013.  Now the production lines from Germany and Austria have also been transferred to Kietaviškės, making the local production unit one of the largest in Europe.

“Compared to Austria, Lithuania is certainly a less expensive place to operate. But for us this indicator has not been crucial. What we see as Lithuania’s biggest advantage is its highly qualified labor force.  Lithuania owns solid skill training and professional preparation traditions. As our company is specializing in high-end products, it’s been very important for us to recruit and employ people with proper qualifications,” says Klaus Brammertz, President of Bauwerk Boen Group.

It is exactly this kind of people that Bauwerk Boen has found in Kietaviškės, notes Irmantas Rajunčius, head of the company’s manufacturing unit in Lithuania.

“Our workers are honest, well organized and hard-working. We receive only the highest words of applause from our Norwegian and Swiss headquarters,” says Rajunčius.

The Kietaviškės unit now employs 1,200 people. Around 300 jobs have been created this year alone. The Ministry of National Economy acknowledges this investment has been an overwhelming success, especially having in mind it has been brought to a less developed region rather than a big metropolis.

“We are glad that investors are coming to the rural Lithuania. Labor force here is much cheaper but nevertheless of high quality and easy to train [due to the high education standard on the whole],” says Evaldas Gustas Minister, Minister of National Economy.

Bauwerk Boen Group is producing 8 million square meters of parquet annually, of which 7 million is now being manufactured in Kietaviškės. The parquet is produced predominately from oak. To mark the important transformation taking place in Kietaviškės, a symbolic oak tree has been planted in the company’s garden recently.

See the original article here (in Lithuanian).

Source: lrt.lt