Visiting the Successful!

It was a pleasure to spend a couple of hours with the Gajić family from Lipnički Šor, on the outskirts of Loznica, where we arrived at their invitation and had the opportunity to meet a typical family-owned wood processing company. Our interlocutor was Milorad Gajić, the owner and founder of Jare Prom. Right from the start, he proudly introduced his family, the foundation and inspiration of his work.

"My wife Biljana is truly the pillar of our family and supports every job we undertake. Nothing is too hard for her, and she knows everything about our business. Her care for our household and company deserves all the praise. She is my greatest support, following me everywhere, shoulder to shoulder. It has always been that way, and it still is today; she handles much of the work in the company and is my biggest support... Our older daughter Ljiljana successfully completed her studies in America. Our younger daughter, Dragica, manages all administrative tasks, speaks Italian fluently, and handles all correspondence with our partners in Italy. Our youngest son, Dragić, is gradually taking over all operations. He is reliable and hardworking, and knows every machine, every workstation, and the complete work technology. He is mainly on the field and is responsible for the receipt of goods," Milorad Gajić proudly states.

"My late father and I first worked in forestry, and then we ventured into the private business sector. We started our first company with a different name and a different activity in 1993, dealing with the service transport of logs. We also had a small sawmill and cut some logs... New opportunities and possibilities opened up, and after 15 years, on June 17, 2008, we established our company Jare Prom. So, next spring will mark 12 years of our intensive involvement in wood processing, and looking back, I have plenty of reasons to be satisfied. First, the family is together, everyone works, and every day we make gradual progress. Every year we invest in something and are technologically well-equipped for our work program. We process 5 to 6 thousand cubic meters of oak and ash logs annually. We exclusively source raw materials from private forests across Serbia. We have our own transport, possessing trucks for the delivery of raw materials and the transport of finished products. We also provide transportation services for others," our interlocutor continues.

"We send raw oak elements to Slovenia. There, we have a reliable partner with whom we recently started collaborating, and so far, everything is going well. The rest of the oak, known as friza, we export to Bosnia and Herzegovina. We produce edge-glued panels for two companies in Italy. We have a joint venture, MASSTON d.o.o., with a partner from Italy. We've been collaborating for about ten years, functioning as one family... I know it's rare, but we also cut panel wood, and we do this exclusively for our partner from Italy. So, we do everything for known customers... We have two lines for cutting logs. One line cuts and processes ash, and the other oak. Only when there is no ash do we cut oak on both lines. There are no technological obstacles to cutting both oak and ash on both lines... We also do a bit of work with chestnut wood, which we import from Italy in elements, dry it in our drying facilities, glue it into panels, and send it back to Italy."

"We took things step by step, and the company develops day by day. I must also thank UniCredit Bank, who support us whenever we need a new machine or other investment. We grow every day, recently purchasing another sawmill, so we now have a total of three. We have the complete mechanism for gluing and assembling the program... We regularly pay wages to our employees, and we timely service all our obligations, both to the employees, suppliers, and the state.

"Soon we will also start pellet production as we have enough wood residue. Currently, all our dry sawdust goes into a silo, where we have a modern automatic boiler installed. When the temperature drops below 55 degrees, it ignites automatically, and when it reaches 65 degrees, it shuts off automatically. We have 250 cubic meters of drying facilities also operated by sawdust. In winter, we use the boiler for heating the facility since the temperature needs to be at least 14 degrees to glue panels. We also heat the office space... I believe we are heading in the right direction, and the most important thing is that my children have accepted the work, with each of them appropriately involved in our company. This is the third generation in our family engaged in the wood industry, which is quite rare... I want to believe that this tradition will continue," our host concludes.

We found out that Jare Prom is a socially responsible company. They support the church, school, and local football club... We saw written recognition from the church awarded to Milorad Gajić, who celebrated the village feast day the most times... Incidentally, Gajić has been the president of the football club SLOGA for 11 years.

Jare Prom mainly employs local residents. We spoke with several workers who told us they are satisfied with their neighbor and boss, that they work responsibly and receive regular wages. From our interlocutor, we learned that the average salary in his company is around 50 thousand dinars and that the care of workers is a priority for him. Gajić says he is aware that the wood sector has serious problems with skilled personnel, but one of the biggest issues is the export of logs.

We also learned that the business performance of Jare Prom was successful last year, and this year they expect a 20% increase in business results. When progress is made step-by-step, the results will follow and will be visible, our host repeated several times. It is especially worth mentioning that Jare Prom is a typical family company where all members of the immediate family are employed. They have mastered all the secrets of this business, complement each other, and are a sure support and future of this company.

Founded on family tradition and underpinning family structure, such companies have a solid foundation for development and success, provided there is always a level of tolerance, trust, mutual understanding, respect, and appreciation in work and mutual communication. It is also important to know who decides what, who does what, and who is responsible for what... These rules are obviously part of the business operations at Jare Prom, where work and order prevail but also a certain simplicity and genuine spiritual peace. Any visitor to this company, whose foundations were laid and business path traced by Milorad Gajić, will surely carry such an impression. Undoubtedly, he had help and support from his family. This is clearly visible.

Dragojlo Blagojević