Oknoplast was founded twenty years ago, and is still a family business with father and son running the company
The group has three production sites – 1,200 employees work at the main site near Cracow, Poland, another 100 employees produce aluminum windows also in the Cracow area (AluHouse). At a third site in Poland (Lodz) another 200 employees take care of the production of pvc windows.
The largest market for Oknoplast is the domestic one, and more than half of the products (65%) are exported to Hungary, Germany, the Czech Republic, France, Italy and Slovakia. Andrzej Gołembiecki, Production Manager Insulated Glass said “Oknoplast is a premium brand. We buy the best glass, have the best processing machines and employ the best people on the market. Proof of our success is the many innovation awards we receive and also the fact that our products are often copied, which should make us sad – but to be frank, it makes us proud.”
“We want customers to have the Wow feeling when their new windows are installed – top-notch quality.” If there are claims, Oknoplast is eager to solve them and make sure customers are happy, even if it goes on Oknoplast’s account. Claims that are related to defects in the raw material cannot always be forwarded to the supplier, because the hurdles are internal Oknoplast quality criteria,” he said.
Oknoplast has much tighter quality norms than many glass producers. It was only with this tight quality strategy that Oknoplast received the Cekal certification for the French market, one of the strictest certificates on the market – a certificate they got within 1.5 years after they started production. Or to say it in Oknoplast’s founder Adam Placek’s words, “I care about quality and appearance and not about just quickly shipping products out of the warehouse. I am demanding, I strive for perfection at every step.”
Doubling production capacity by 2020
Recently Oknoplast developed its growth strategy. Its target is to double production capacity by 2020, which would mean up to 7,000 insulating glass units per day. Necessary investments are being discussed, and obviously, LiSEC is part of Oknoplast’s future. The detailed roadmap for the strategy is to be finished by the end of the year.
Until 2012 Oknoplast bought IG units from a major Polish supplier. In 2012 they decided to produce their own IG units in order to increase their own added value and to be more independent. Right now four LiSEC cutting lines and three IG production lines generate 3,500 IG units per day. Oknoplast processes 70 different types of glass, enabling them to offer 6,000 different types of IG units. “We see LiSEC as a true technology partner we can rely on. The introduction of LiSEC software packages was very challenging – thanks to their size and their own experience in glass processing, though, LiSEC is able to develop tailor made solutions and offer the customer what they really need.”