Topol Group

The key to success now and in the future

As Sir Richard Branson once said: “Always give it a try. And even if you fail, pick yourself up and try again". This is the philosophy that guides Nikita Semenov, vice-president and member of the Board of Topol Group, a Russian company that is now the leader on the children’s domestic furniture, offering a wide range of solutions and having significant production capabilities.

“The history of the Group – says Nikita Semenov - begins in 1965 in the town of Votkinsk (in the Urals region, Russia), as a part of a huge military plant. Since Soviet times everything has totally changed. It was a long path, along which Topol Group went through major transformation and extended its business. And now we can operate in different sectors, from oil&gas equipment to manufacturing home appliances, from construction and development to furniture solutions”.

The jewel in the Group’s crown is definitely the production of nursery and children’s furniture, including cots and cot beds, storage units such as wardrobes, chests of drawers, baby-changing units, shelving, etc. A basic range of items has been created to meet the initial consumer demand, and this approach is being successfully used by the company focusing on pragmatic and affordable products.The company’s best-sellers include a “convertible cot bed”, which can be converted from a baby cot to a toddler’s bed with a bedside table, chest of drawers and a shelf.

Every month, Topol factories produce more than 10,000 different models of cots and cot beds and tens of thousands of other products. These significant production volumes became possible not only because of favourable logistics with the factories’ and warehouses’ proximity to the raw materials and customers, but mainly because of huge investments in technology and high-performance equipment essential to the company’s specific focus on consumer goods.

"To be successful means to produce these products the most efficient way: quicker than the others, more flexible, with maximum automation, at the highest quality level and at a lower price. And all these are possible only with reliable and sustainable partners like Scm Group!” - Nikita Semenov, Vice-president

“Something in our factory that we’re especially proud of – emphasises Nikita Semenov – is the Morbidelli Author M600F CNC machine with mobile portal from SCM used for panel nesting machining”. The machine belongs to the new generation of machining centres with a highly rigid gantry portal structure. It is essential in applications that require complex and high-speed machining. The set-up that we operate may be unique in our country, with automatic loading and unloading and a single operator controlling the entire line.

The SCM Group special MAESTRO software makes machine programming fast and easy. The factory uses other SCM Group solutions as well, including an SCM Morbidelli flexible “batch one" boring centre, also used for prototypes, and the Morbidelli Uniflex HP boring centre. “This – explains Nikita Semenov - is a recent model from the flexible boring machine range, very fast and fully automated”.

"HP" indicates a special configuration of the machining heads which allows productivity to be doubled when machining sides or elements with holes arranged in parallel lines. The machine can be used to bore two work pieces with a single "specular” positioning procedure. It can carry out boring at the sides of the clamps, any type of routing, and other machining operations. The machining centre is designed to work on “batch one” orders, small/medium-sized batches and even large batches of up to 300 work pieces.

“Last year we topped the symbolic threshold of 1 billion Roubles, and we are continuing our growth this year too! Furniture factory sales gained 50% compared to the 1st quarter 2015, and we are determined to keep these growth rates for the rest of 2016. – says Nikita Semenov - We will launch at least 5 new collections this year. They are a part of our new multinational sales policy. In April 2016 a new sales representative office in Germany was opened.

As far as I know, Topol Group at this very moment is the first Russian furniture company having its own sales office in Europe”.

“All the markets, either in Russia or in Europe, are very competitive. And to be successful on them does not mean only to create a “beautiful product” which customers like. To be successful means to produce these products the most efficient way: quicker than the others, more flexible, with maximum automation, at the highest quality level and at a lower price. And all these are possible only with reliable and sustainable partners like SCM Group!”

From

LesPromInform,

article by Editor in

Chief Maksim Pirus

Topol Group (Russia)