INTERVIEW: ESAD BEZDROB, CEO OF COMPANY INTERMER – SARAJEVO
Interviewed by: Hamed IBIŠEVIĆ
SARAJEVO, 9 September (ONASA) – The CEO of the company INTERMER Sarajevo Esad Bezdrob in an interview for the ONASA, inter alia, spoke about the establishment and activities of the company, selling products from the production assortment, the performed work and the most important business partners, representation at fairs, today’s business and problems encountered, providing quality wood for work …
ONASA: When was the company INTERMER d.o.o. Sarajevo founded, and can you describe the scope of its operation in more detail?
BEZDROB: The company was founded on August 11, 1996 as a company for finishing works in construction and furniture making. Until a few years ago our priority activity was finishing service in construction, ie working with stone, ceramics, painting, but recently more attention was focused on the development of laminated furniture with occasional engagements with our business partners and friends on the final works. We do this for economic reasons, and depending on market demand. Our production assortment includes the production of kitchens, cabinets, tables, dressers, living rooms.
ONASA: Do you have data on which products in your assortment are most demanded?
BEZDROB: It is currently the panel furniture, kitchens, as well as interior furnishing. We make our products of plywood, MDF, very small number of products are made of solid wood. We also make so-called American closets, but I do not like calling them American closets, but rather Bosnian closets with sliding doors. Unfortunately, we rarely make our products of real, solid wood, because BiH unfortunately, in the state it is currently and the position of timber industry and forests in our country, does not have high-quality solid wood for furniture manufacturing. We, of course, have this wood, but it is exported, we export the round wood, and what we are left with cannot be properly prepared for the furniture so we often face with complaints, and we ourselves are often not satisfied with the product.
ONASA: How many employees does your company have and do you plan on opening new jobs?
BEZDROB: Currently, we have seven staff workers and at this point we do not plan to create jobs, until the economic situation in the country changed. I think that today success is to save what you have, and we cannot even speak about enlargement. Within the company, there are three workers in non-production activities, or so-called director’s staff, and the rest are high quality carpenters.
ONASA: Do you have plans to expand your activities, ie to open new branches?
BEZDROB: No.
ONASA: On which markets does your company operate the most, and what are the problems that your company most commonly encounters in doing business in BiH market?
BEZDROB: We operate solely in the Sarajevo Canton. The most common problems in business are already mentioned provision of quality wood, and the fact that the material with which we work is almost all imported. Plywood panels are from Austria or from Turkey and Romania. The secondary material, including glue, tapes for banding, screws, hinges are from Slovenia. Our factory Mediapan in Busovaca, which until the war was among the most modern in Europe, is a ruin today.
ONASA: Was your company, and when, represented at some of the domestic and international trade fairs?
BEZDROB: Immediately after the war, we were for two years at Sarajevo fair, but we stopped participating because we did not see any benefit from this participation. In fact, our best advertisement is a good recommendation, or to put it this way: “Our work is our best recommendation.”
ONASA: Can you present your most important partners?
BEZDROB: We are proud to have worked, and after the war to have restored, all pharmacies of Public institution of Apoteke Sarajevo. We include in our successful work the following: the work on the building of ASA Prevent, then existing facility of ASA Auto, Avaz building on the site of today’s Hypo Alpe Adria Bank in Alipašino polje in Sarajevo and the Radon Plaza Hotel. We have also worked on a lot of apartments with GP Butmir, then-existing GP Vranica, GP Put, ŽGP, Prograd company which works on apartments for Cantonal fund for construction of apartments for shaheeds and fighters, many banks, health centers, and we have recently conducted the complement of furniture in the office building of the Banking Agency.
ONASA: Can you inform us on your company’s projects in the past period that you are most proud of, and on your action plans for 2015?
BEZDROB: There are really lots of objects and it is difficult to single out any one in particular, but let us say on this occasion a building of “Avaz”, Administrative building and service part of the ASA Prevent Group, in Vogosca “Mercedes” service, a number of apartments in Vogosca that are built by the mentioned Cantonal Fund for construction of apartments for shaheeds and fighters. (end)