Anton Nachev – Factory Manager of Consilium

Interview and photo Human Value International

Consilium is a Swedish company and it was established in Bulgaria three years ago. The company has several branche offices. In Bulgaria it works mainly for the automotive industry, producing parts for Volvo, Getrag, Husqvarna, Valeo, etc.  The company has 400 employees globally and in Bulgaria about 60.

Anton Nachev is the Factory Manager of Consilium in Bulgaria. 

How would you describe the business sector your company is active in?
The business sector is mainly automotive, but our ideas for the future are that the sector will shift a little bit to other players such as some major furniture producers. There are not many other companies like ours in Bulgaria. The main players are Epiq and Melexis, Genmark but they are involved in electronic assembly for automotives. There is Montupet, a French company specialized in aluminum castings for alloy wheels. So these are the main ones, 5 of them in Bulgaria, though they are not so big.

What do you think about the Bulgarian labour market in your branche?
My experience of recruiting more than 200 people in the last three, four years is that there is a lack of qualified personnel in the country. At the same time there is something very strange; the company’s requirements are getting higher while there is a lack of qualified personnel, so the matching point is far away. So this is one of the biggest problems in Bulgaria nowadays.

Do you think today the Bulgarian labour market in your business area is competitive to the other EU countries labour market?
 I would say there are pros and cons. The advantages are that still we are considered as a low cost country, which is our biggest advantage probably and our situation here is also very attractive for investors. The corporate tax is 10%, which is one of the lowest in Europe. Advantages are  still the good university system and graduates come, people speak some languages and there is a man power potential for companies. But on the other hand the capacity is extremely low, I would say that it is approximately 10 times lower than that of the Western Europe in terms of lost time, bureaucracy, etc.

What should the Bulgarian labour market in your business sector improve?
What I am doing in my business now, is I am trying to create an apprentice program. My opinion is that  Bulgarian and foreign companies should invest more and should give more incentives to universities graduates to build their own type of professions and in this way one can  build this small niche that is missing in the market.

What is the need for employees within your business field? What kind of staff is most demanded?
Mostly we demand assembly workers because this is a production process, so 70 % of our staff is people who are working on the assembly line. But we  miss qualified people in terms of quality engineers, production engineers, ERP planners, ISO/TS people,  so people with very specific engineering knowledge and who know several languages like English, German and why not Swedish.

According to you, would foreigners be able to fill a labour niche within your business field?
Absolutely, recently I was about to recruit an American guy, who was going to be our production planner in Bulgaria and another American as a mechanic. But finally we decided this will be too high for us and at the end we took a Bulgarian person. We were very close to take the Americans because they matched the criteria better in terms of what we were looking for at that moment. So I would say that foreigners have a lot of potential and they can find job in our appointments. For example I have at least 2-3 Swedish workers, tool makers, working every day in the Bulgarian factory and vice versa some Bulgarians working in Sweden.

What does it mean to be a manager? What is the challenge in this?
The biggest challenge was when I created this company, and it was something from the green field, but nowadays the challenge is to make work go smoother and to try to make the organization grow. And this is a big responsibility because you are responsible for 60 families. One has to balance what is best for the company and what is best for the employees.  Also a challenge is attracting new customers in this part of the world.

What was your first job and in which company?
I started my career actually at Schneider Electric with a training program (apprentice program) during and after my university. I applied there and I did the training program for 6 months and then I was promoted. I got the chance to have a nice first job and work at a large company.

What is the first management position that you held and in which company? 
The first management position was at Schneider after this introduction period. Then I was a representative of an English company in the automotive, William Hughes Ltd, which is located near Plovdiv in a new industrial area.

What is your strategy for motivating people? 
It depends on the people you deal with. But the best thing is just to be able to match what suites best each personality.  Everybody has their “sleeping” strengths. I am trying to awake the best “sleeping sides” in my subordinates and to try to give the best matching incentives, involving the right education, the right department or the right supervising person. In this way I am able to estimate which are the biggest strengths in each person.

How do you position your company in the market?
We are a market leader in Europe and we are in the top five worldwide. In Bulgaria we are the only one, we do not have any competitors. Nowadays, we do not export in this region, but our intentions are to export from Bulgaria to Romania, Turkey and the whole South-East Europe. Our big advantage is that our biggest customers are already in this part of the world and we are with them. Also, we are the only fine blanking producer in SE Europe. Fine blanking is a technology through which one can produce extremely high precision components. We use very complicated CAD/CAM systems and high-tech tools and matrices. Generally speaking, this is a completely unique technology for Bulgaria and whole SE Europe.

Were you hunted by head hunters?
Yes

Have you used the services of headhunting for finding key and management positions in your company?
I have not used headhunting services, but I plan to do it in the future.

What is your opinion about executive search / headhunting?
According to me, executive search in Bulgaria is still at a very low level. People are still learning how to do this business properly, but I am happy I have met a company and I do reckon that now they are the pioneer in this field, but soon Bulgarian companies will realize the need for such professionals, who can do a real executive search.