E X P E R I E N C E
A builder from
the Czech
Republic fulfils
the dream of
his own small
timber
business
Good relations and fair prices
Czech-mate the local timber processing game
Vladimir Vrsek from the Czech city of Krivoklat, 30
kilometres south of Prague, has long dreamed
about wood.
Although a construction engineer, he and his
svager (brother-in-law) Ivon Krob considered
several different business ideas since the early
1990s.
“After the 'Velvet Revolution' I managed a
municipal heating system firm which was being
privatised. I left it to start my own business”, he
recalls.
“First, we thought of producing briquettes from
wood waste – a sort of sustainable combustible!
“We did our calculations, researching the market
and travelling around to gauge people's interest in
buying briquettes.
“However, we soon saw that it was unlikely we'd
be able to acquire the necessary amounts of wood
10
waste to produce enough briquettes for a viable
enterprise.
“Farmers were actively buying wood waste for
their own needs”, Vladimir Vrsek explains. Even so,
such an entrepreneur does not lose heart and
investigations revealed another idea with good
prospects.
“Conversations with various people revealed a
surprising shortage of sawn lumber on the market”,
says Vladimir Vrsek. Armed with this intelligence he
and his partner took an interest in modern wood
cutting technologies and that brought them to the
Czech city of Klatovy and Miroslav Greill, director of
Wood-Mizer Servis.
“Miroslav Greill advised that we watch sawmills in
operation before reaching any conclusion. He took
us to a working timber production operation at
Pribram, 80 km from Prague.
WOOD-MIZER TODAY SPRING 2011