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Hvem er den beste eksportøren i Latvia?
Latlaft er kvalifisert for finalerunden i konkurransen arrangert av Latvian Investment and Development Agency å nominere den beste eksportøren 2011. Vi er 1 av 7 kvalifiserte selskaper for denne nominasjonen.
Info er for øyeblikket i latvisk her:
http://www.liaa.gov.lv/lv/eksportetajiem/eksporta_un_inovacijas_balva11/ |
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Utstillinger 2011
Vi har deltatt på utstillingen i siste 7 år. Dette år skal vi gjøre det igjen. Derfor vi inviterer alle å besøke utstillingen „Hytte 2012” i Lillestrøm fra 22.-25. mars. Det skal bli en greit mulighet å treffes, diskutere og fortsette med deres drømm å bygge hytte. Vi sees! |
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Besøk vår youtube kanal!
Vi har også nylig laget en instruktiv video. Den gir kundene en dypere innsikt i hele produksjonsprosessen, og i Latlaft´s tilnærming til lafte-hytte produksjon. |
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Følg oss på Facebook!
Vår tilstedeværelse på Facebook gjør at vi kan være enda tettere på kundene og kan dele vår store erfaring med andre. |
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Latlaft answers on questions from byggehytte.no forum
It’s not a wonder that because of Latlaft LTD activities in Norway a forum about the company started on web page byggehytte.no by one of Latlaft customers is so popular – about 6500 visits until October 2010. We are therefore thankful to the author who started this forum – a place where potential customers have a possibility to get an independent opinion about Latvian producer of handcrafted log houses. It is impossible also to avoid negative information for company that has delivered already more that 150 log houses to Norway, especially if direct competitor has a possibility to write he’s comments. Anyhow we confirm that for some customers this forum was useful to order a log house from Latlaft.
Since some questions in this form remain unanswered and some competitors gave incorrect information, more and more customers call us and ask the same questions. We decided to answer the questions with this letter addressed to all potential customers. We will copy a text from the forum where Latlaft must add a comment with explanation or answer a question.
Latlaft will try to answer or comment following questions:
1. Contract conditions
2. Representative in Norway
3. Moisture content in timber
4. Construction work in Norway
5. Materials used for building work
6. Competitors
1. CONTRACT CONDITIONS
Text in forum:
“Husk også norsk kontrakt, IKKE skriv under på en utenlandsk”
“…det var en "hjemmesnekret" kontrakt. Selv om det var beskrevet en del krav her, er jeg usikker på hvor langt jeg hadde kommet i en reklamasjonsprosess så lenge det hele tiden dreier seg om forskuddsbetaling. Hva gjør du når du har betalt 70% av kjøpesum dersom de ikke vil rette opp i evnt. feil. Du får det iverfall ikke ut fra Latlaft og Latvia....”
This is a typical question and every customer needs an explanation about Latlaft standard contract. It is definitely not a "hjemmesnekret" kontrakt, but improved within 10 years with every log house delivery to Norway, when Latlaft had different experiences. It gives enough security for both parties and guarantees that producer will receive a payment for the work and customer will receive what he orders.
It is normal to use contract made according to other country legislation, if you are buying goods from this country. But we will explain how we guarantee that customer gets what he orders.
a) Payment security.
It is truth that producers in Baltic States have difficulties to offer a bank guarantee against payments. If this praxis is very popular in Scandinavia and bank guarantee can be simply issued in few days, it is not working in Baltic States. Almost the only way to get a bank guarantee is to deposit same amount of money in the bank, therefore we had to find another alternatives. But we continue discussions with banks and as soon as this procedure will be faster and not so complicated, we will be able to offer also bank guarantee as an additional benefit.
According to our standard contract conditions after each payment the goods (including “laftekasse” in every stage of readiness) are property of the customer. Customer has free access to he’s materials and inspection can be made at any time.
b) Insurance.
All premises and materials in Latvia are insured and every customer get’s an insurance policy for prepaid materials on he’s name. This is what we agreed with insurance company this year and our customers don’t have to worry about fire accidents e.t.c.
For construction work in Norway we have 3 kinds of insurances – company insurance, material insurance and project insurance. This is needed to guarantee that customers invested money in the project is safe.
c) Guaranteed quality
Customer has to make most of the payments only after he has inspected the materials and accepted the quality. If something is wrong, Latlaft makes corrections or replaces materials at own costs. Producer is interested to finish production, deliver the materials and build the log house in shortest period, therefore corrections are done as fast as possible. Nobody is interested to hold unfinished log house and go in to the conflict. With this kind of contract the customer is in much better situation than producer.
Also for construction work in Norway customer pays step by step according to work that is done and accepted. Last payment is made only when cabin is totally finished and all quality is accepted.
Latlaft respects customer rights and it is possible that more and more changes will be made in the contract to make it totally understandable and acceptable for Norwegian customer. Same way step by step we implemented Norwegian log building standards in our production and are able now to offer high quality product and services.
I always point out that Norway is a small market and our aim is that all customers are 100% satisfied (95% is not enough, but author of the forum knows that he is a very special customer). That’s way Latlaft is doing more work than it is obligated by the contract. Also after 3 or more years we send our carpenters to fix something if needed, as one of our 3-5 teams are always in the near. Most of the log house suppliers disappeared, but Latlaft never stopped the production and customers can feel safe.
2. REPRESENTATIVE IN NORWAY
Text in forum:
“Til opplysning så er vel Tiurbygg teknisk konkurs, med en minus egenkapital på kr 271.000. Etter regnskapet å dømme, så har vel de ikke solgt mange hytter, i 2008 var omsetningen 34.000 kr, så "be aware"”
“Ved å velge en norsk mellommann vil jo mye av usikkerheten være borte, men også her er det feller. En liten leverandør med dårlig likviditet vil lett kunne slå seg konkurs dersom ett krav blir for stort. Har du da ikke fått en bankgaranti er du like langt her også.”
It is difficult to sell log houses in Norway without a representative in this country. Some customers don’t want to communicate directly with producer and we have to respect that.
TiurBygg AS is Latlaft official representative since 2009 and after one year of co-operation, hundreds of e-mails, phone calls and several meetings we had very good results in 2010. I believe that financial situation of this company is improved. But we have to point out that all contracts are confirmed directly with Latlaft and TiurBygg AS receives only commission to cover the costs which TiurBygg AS has to organize a legal building work in Norway.
3. MOISTURE CONTENT OF TIMBER
Text in forum:
17/05/2009
“Tømmeret var godt utmalmet,70-80%. Borret inn til senter på ca 30% av tilfeldig utvalgte stokker og målt fuktihet, denne varierte mellom 16-18%. Alt ser tett og fint ut... de hadde begynt på 3 stokker som skulle bli grunnlaget for 2 etg. Her ble fuktigheten målt til 30-35%”
Same author after one year 13/05/2010
“De er billige, tømmeret ser greit ut, det er stort sett tørt, men jeg opplevde på en av mine inspeksjonsturer at de holdt på med stokker som hadde en fuktighet på 40%”
“Når det gjelder tømmer: Latlaft får tømmer fra Rusland. De fortalte mange historier om de første lastene de fikk, men tror at de har fått god kontroll på dette”
I didn’t participate at the inspection, when customer found these 3 logs in production hall with higher moisture content than 16-18% in he’s log house walls, therefore can’t comment which logs exactly were measured. Normally the logs are dried in same factory kiln drier until 18%, but since the timber structure and density is different, and dried timber soaks back the moisture very fast (in case it get’s rain water or has been treated with water soluble chemicals), it is expected that sometimes the moisture content on the surface increases.
But I believe that there are no doubts that customer in this case received a log house with 16-18% moisture content as it must be according to Latlaft standards.
Regarding the timber we must confirm that Latlaft has never used logs for log building imported from Russia, however in some parts of this country the timber is really good. Timber was imported for other business of timber industry group where Latlaft is only a part of it. 40% of Latvia is covered by forests (mostly pine) and Latlaft has enough resources to select best quality logs for log building. Left twisted are rejected.
4. CONSTRUCTION WORK IN NORWAY
Text in forum:
“Laget som satte opp hytta i Norge var trivelige karer, men hadde f.eks. ikke penger til å kjøpe nye sagblad, pussepapir og lignende så dette måtte jeg kjøpe! (jeg hadde sikker fått refundert dette, det virker bare litt amatørmessig) Videre var arbeid/pakking av stokker veldig dårlig, dette medførte at kostnad for kran ble stor, men er i stor del oppveid ved tett pakking / færre trailerlass. Noe dårlig handverk ved montering av raftesperrer, men dette ble omarbeidet når jeg påpekte dette. Heldigvis kom jeg før de begynte å legge taket, da hadde det ikke vært så lett å få det bra. Her er igjen poenget, de kan utføre bra håndverk, det så jeg når de begynte, men så fort jeg forsvant, ble det mer slurvete. Men igjen greie og hyggelige karer.”
There is a big difference in work organization if you do that 1000 miles from building place, and it is impossible to make every day control, therefore customer’s assistance sometimes is needed. Latlaft hires only very reliable workers, and they will make corrections if customer will need that. That is also condition in the contract.
But Latlaft is skilled enough to organize all work also without customer’s help, as there are some log houses in Norway built privately for Latlaft, when absolutely all work has been organized from office in Latvia (from paperwork with commune until security system and cable TV instalaltion).
Regarding packaging of timber it is always dilemma – we can make one package with logs from same log layer instead of compact packages and customer will save money on crane hours, but in this case an additional trailer will be needed and it will cost at least 1800 EUR. For this customers must be ready.
5. MATERIALS USED FOR BUILDING WORK
Text in forum:
"Taktroa er full av mugg og sopp."
"Pappen så "billig" ut"
"Noe som ikke var fullt så bra var den flate himlingen som var lagt av stygge villmarksbord"
"Høres fornuftig ut å skaffe vinduer etc selv.For 8-9 år siden var firmaet jeg jobbet i Riga og monterte vinduer, pga at de ikke hadde bra nok varer selv."
Before I receive an answer from Kenneth, I can only guess in which roof materials he saw "mugg og sopp". Any kind of fungi in visible places is not allowed in Latlaft materials. But some blue stain in roof materials that are not visible is permitted, as blue stain is only a visual defect and is not destroying the wood cells. For future Latlaft decided to deliver pressure impregnated boards for layer under the turf membrane to avoid any unnecessary confusions and make the material even better.
It is also difficult to understand which layer of turf membrane Kenneth saw on the roof. Latlaft makes two layers of membranes and this is not a cheap material, as producer gives 30 years guarantee (not many producers of turf membranes can give so long service life guarantee).
Regarding Villmarkspanel I must say that is not ugly but different to what you usually can find in Norwegian market as every board is also handcrafted. I attached picture in Bilder - last picture in galery "Siste prosjekter". Sides of each board are hand-sanded and not planed by machine. Anyhow every customer has a possibility to choose the materials, therefore there are no bad surprises.
Regarding the windows and doors - there are two very good producers in Latvia, but in summer 2010 Latlaft started to co-operate with Estonian company Viking Window AS - the best and most professional producer in Baltic States.
There are more people hired in 2010 in Latlaft to follow up the material quality and material list, therefore first trucks arrive with all necessary materials for "laftekasse" and roof (including insulation and membranes). Last truck arrives with windows and doors as well as inside materials, when roof is ready. It is enough if customers come to inspect the work once a 1-2 weeks.
6. COMPETITORS
It is pity that some competitors use this forum to write a negative and wrong information. Customers have to keep in mind that this information is not always true. If Norwegian writes also something positive like: "Tømmeret så derimot ganske bra ut med relativt tette årringer og mye malm i tømmeret. Kvaliteten på arbeidet så også ok ut.", the most negative comment comes from Latvian perosn. But this is a part of our menthality...
If I have to comment the words of the author "Q", I can confirm that Latlaft produces also "Stavlaft". The price is low and it is logical - we have low labor costs. And finally I will point out that Latlaft always focused on handwork in production as much as possible. We had a possibility to buy a cheap machine from bankrupted log builder that would prepare the logs for "lafting" many times faster. But it was decided to debark and plane the surfaces of each log by hand and leave the natural shape of each tree. This costs money, but today Latlaft is one of few companies that still don't use machines in production and offers a real "håndverk".
If anybody has some more questions, please write me directly to eriks@jauda-koks.lv
Best regards
Eriks Eisaks
Latlaft LTD sales director
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