Our vision of the client, the market, the market economy...
Since it was founded, in 2005, our company has focused primarily on clients and their needs. In more than 10 years of pallet and europallets production, we have proven that pallets can be manufactured at another level and with a different mindset in wood processing in Romania, an industry that most of the times operates atypically compared to the principles of market economy and economic agents ignore what the modern client really wants, with the specific requirements of a modern economy, where it is important to deliver at tight deadlines after an order is placed, promptly, qualitatively, exactly as requested by the client and not as the supplier thinks.
Over the years we, have seen that pallet manufacturers with that outdated mindset went bankrupt one by one, while companies that adapted both their mindset and their technology to the demands of the modern market economy have not only survived (even though the log market has often fluctuated rather dangerously), but have increased and strengthened their business becoming important players on the pallet market. MOUTARDI SRL is one of these pallet suppliers. Through our vision on wood processing, on the pallet market and our focus on customers and their needs, technology upgrades and adaptation to customer demand for quality, we have managed to become one of the most important and appreciated pallet suppliers in Romania. This is also confirmed by our client portfolio, made up mostly of manufacturers in the automotive industry, where requirements of seriousness and quality are extremely high.
Our vision on sales...
Pallet selling mainly focuses on identifying and capitalising on the market niche of custom pallets. Having skilled staff, with a vast experience in the production of custom pallets, our company has managed to make a name for itself on this niche market due to high quality pallets and an unbeatable good value for money.
Our team has worked continuously to optimise production costs to offer the best possible price to its clients. Many times we have also identified customer demands for pallets that were not optimised in terms of wood consumption. In such cases, together with the client, the pallet was redesigned to obtain a pallet with the same usefulness, but at a lower price, again, to optimise client costs with pallet supply.
Our prices rank as average when compared to the competition. But we supply a very good value for money, which makes our pallets among the cheapest both in terms of cost per use and actual cost of production for clients because: a pallet has a good final price if made exactly as required, at a quality corresponding to the client's expectations (otherwise, it can generate loss during use and then it becomes more expensive), if it is durable (if the pallet does not withstand the number of operations provided within a set period of time, it will certainly become more expensive than its initial price because it will have to be replaced or it may actually damage the merchandise or create discomfort for the recipient of the merchandise on the pallet).
Our vision of supply...
Our biggest challenge was and remains log procurement. Unfortunately, the Romanian log market (state-controlled through Romsilva) has proven to be unstable so far, especially in terms of prices and, not seldom, in terms of stock. We had to find various solutions to maintain a steady log price and sufficient stock. We understand that it will be very difficult to maintain a serious long-term collaboration with a serious and demanding client if, after every increase in log prices, we ask the clients for a new price increase or if, at every log procurement crisis, we tell the clients we can no longer deliver because we cannot procure logs.
Thus, our company usually has a buffer stock of logs that can last for a month so that, in the event of a log procurement crisis, there will be stock in the yard until the problem is solved, and so far there have been no crises on the log market lasting longer than one month.
To keep log prices under control, our company participates in auctions organised by Romsilva and buys shaped wood both in Caras-Severin County and in Mehedinti County (we have this advantage that our premises are on the border of the two counties, which are important at a national level in terms of forest area) and we also buy logs from private companies that exploit standing wood (forest), also made available through Romsilva auctions. Both from Romsilva and from private companies, we buy shaped logs, taken out from the forest, from warehouses or at a price for log brought into the yard (as it happens with most private companies).
Thus, according to the principles that are still valid since our company’s foundation, we don’t go “into the forest” to cut logs. We prefer to buy it after it is cut and removed from the forest, either by Romsilva or by companies accredited by Romsilva, at auctions, in order to avoid a rather heavy and hostile environment for what a modern business is these days.
Over time, we have therefore managed to adapt in the middle: between a market of modern demanding clients, who want quality merchandise, delivered quickly and on time, and a log supply market that is totally outdated in terms of operating principles, client perception, capitalism and the market economy. Out biggest success was actually that we managed not only to survive, but to even grow from year to year, here, in the middle, between suppliers and clients, who are at two opposite poles in terms of mindset.
Our vision of forests and their exploitation...
“The forest is a renewable and infinite source of logs if it is respected and the log is cut when it should be and how it should be cut!" - Ciurca Sorin, Commercial Manager at MOUTARDI SRL
We select our suppliers carefully and rigorously, based on principles that have been strictly followed since the foundation of our company:
- we don’t buy logs from illegal sellers or from companies that exploit the forest improperly and immorally.
- we don’t buy logs from companies that cannot supply logs throughout the year.
- we don’t buy young logs. A processed log is a log that has reached maturity and is about to fall.
Forest exploitation must be based on moral principles, such as selective cutting: mature trees, at the end of life, are cut and young trees (at the middle of life) or saplings are avoided and left to grow. After a while, trees at the middle of life end up being mature, saplings end up being at the middle of life and other saplings appear in their place. Thus, allowing the forest to regenerate naturally and cutting trees only towards the end of their life and that are about to fall ensures an infinite source of logs without affecting the volume of effective wood mass in the forests. In a certain time interval, wood mass must not be cut from the forest more than the actual capacity of the forest to regenerate in that time interval and the wood mass that must be cut is the one that, if it were not cut, would be lost anyway. For example, in Caras-Severin County (our main procurement area), this simple principle has been most of the time observed both by Romsilva and by the private companies and the volume of wood mass in the forests of this county (according to Romsilva data) increased over the years, while it decreased in many other counties).
- we have increased our maximum production capacity depending on the amount of logs and the share that the market in the area can offer us.
Our client portfolio, our equipment, personnel, production method etc. are adjusted according to the maximum volume of logs that our company can procure without being forced to violate the above principles.
Since the beginning and up to now, man has used wood to survive and evolve. There is a multitude of wooden products that we all use in our daily lives. Companies that use a natural resource (logs) to offer consumers wooden products must understand some principles of fairness and morality that would lead to balance the relationship between man and the forest. If those principles are observed, a harmonious framework of collaboration between man and the forest will be created; and, if they are not observed, it can lead to a disaster for both.