How is the construction of the Vitebsk Fur Factory progressing? About plans and problems from the construction site

A year before the scheduled commissioning of the upgraded production facility, as stipulated by the Head of State's decree, full-scale construction work has commenced. Nikolay Martynov, General Director of the Marko holding, expects to meet the stringent deadlines set for the enterprise's reconstruction and modernization, and confidently announces the association's target of achieving a five-million pair shoe output in 2018, when the workforce will be preparing for a transition to a single-shift operation.

The first intermediate deadline is set by the onset of frosts: all foundation work must be completed before then, otherwise, it will be difficult and, most importantly, expensive to work with the ground. The general contractor is SU-232 of Zhilstroy OJSC. According to its director, Pavel Pisarenko, the total number of specialists on site is planned to increase to almost 300 people. Their work is supported by a tower crane, 3 excavators, and numerous vehicles and machinery involved in servicing the construction. Currently, the main activities include dismantling obsolete facilities and constructing the base for the warehouse block. This section is expected to reach ground level by early October, after which the construction of the main structures will begin. Work is also underway to dismantle old treatment facilities, which will be replaced by modern structures, significantly improving the environmental situation in the vicinity of the plant. This is perhaps the most labor-intensive and financially costly stage of the project. It is sufficient to mention that the thickness of the concrete walls of the aeration fields reaches one meter. All of this needs to be excavated and, where possible, used to prepare the site for pouring the foundation of new structures.

As noted by the director of the fur factory, Sergey Betenya, one of the main problems remains the financing of the reconstruction, which the holding is currently forced to carry out mainly at its own expense. At the same time, high financial risks necessitated adjustments to the project, which allowed for its partial cost reduction. Thus, instead of a new two-story production building, previously planned on the site of the warehouses, a warehouse complex is being built. All technological processes will be located in the reconstructed old building, which is planned to be supplemented with a number of attached premises. As a consequence, it was necessary to abandon some production areas, but in general, the main capacity parameters of the updated enterprise will remain unchanged – an annual processing of 300 thousand sheepskins and 250 thousand fur raw material pelts. The construction of a new boiler house, major repairs with thermal renovation of the administrative and domestic building, where production has partially moved today, is also envisaged, which makes it possible to carry out reconstruction without stopping production.

According to Nikolai Martynov, the problematic situation with credit support for the reconstruction of the fur factory can be resolved in the near future. There are ready-made solutions for the financial issue, which are economically beneficial and will reduce the overall cost of the work. However, the fur factory is a part, albeit the most financially significant one, of the overall investment project to create capacities for producing up to 5 million pairs of shoes per year, for which the holding company "Belarusian Leather and Footwear Company "Marko" was actually established. In parallel, the modernization of production facilities in the holding's management company, at "San Marco" and "Krasny Oktyabr," is being completed, where workshops are prepared for the installation of new production lines. In 2016, these lines will be purchased and installed, so the achievement of design capacity will occur within the deadlines set by the decree. Increasing shoe production volumes will require a corresponding increase in personnel, including skilled workers, which is a challenging but solvable task today. One approach involves creating attractive working conditions and improving the social and living aspects of specialists' work. Here, Nikolai Martynov is considering an unconventional move: at the holding's enterprises, a transition from a two-shift to a one-shift work schedule may be possible in 5-7 years. This is justified by the need to attract personnel to production, including young people.

Sergey Antonov. Photo by Dmitry Osipov, "Vitebskiye Vesti".