Basic information

First steps in gas concrete production

It all started with Aleksei Vladimirovich Burdovitsin, the CEO of “AltaiStroyMash” company. In 1995 he was a production supervisor at ZHBI plant and was only thinking about his own business. Between 1995 and 1998 Aleksei Vladimirovich was working at the plant, saving up and collected some money enough to launch his own business.

First-hand information: Aleksei Burdovitsin about the production launch

"In 1998 I analyzed the construction market in Barnaul and found out that the city had around 90 manufacturers of concrete. At that point the competition scared me and I opted for foam concrete production. That niche had lower competition rates and the materials required for production were similar. Moreover, an ordinary customer would not see the difference between gas concrete and foam concrete. I was completely sure that I had chosen the right way.

Let me tell you how I got the first equipment. I had a choice: either to buy the ready-made set or to make it myself. The search for the ready-made set resulted in the following:

1. The equipment of reliable brands was too expensive (I did not have enough savings).
2. The equipment made by crude methods was affordable but I did not opt for it. Obviously, the equipment would not work properly as it was assembled in somebody’s garages!

Finally, I made a decision to produce the equipment myself and started searching for information and studying it. It was not enough and soon I started drafting my first drafts.

In some time I rented the premises and cooperated with a welder I knew. It took me about 4 months to prepare the documents and 4 months more to weld the first set of equipment and to test the technology.

When we assembled the equipment and launched it (making the batch due to the book instruction), the result was unsatisfactory. After this, I started experimenting with formulas but each time it was wrong. Only in several months, I got proper foam concrete suitable for sale. I had literally thrown away 30 ton of concrete!

When I entered the market I had to face two cases of disappointment.

Disappointment no.1. There was no demand in foam concrete! As I was saying there was almost no competition in the niche. However, this material was in no demand. There were long queues at manufacturers of gas concrete.

Disappointment no.2. The net cost of foam concrete is 10-15% higher compared to gas concrete. Therefore, it was not worth competing against gas concrete manufacturers.

Thus, I closed up foam concrete production and turned to gas concrete production. Since these construction materials have different production technologies I had to remodel the equipment completely. However, it was easier as I had had experience in designing“.

From a solo entrepreneur to an international company

“AltaiStroyMash” company starts its history in 2000. In the first 4 years we were producing gas concrete and at the same time manufactured the equipment. In that time we managed to sell a lot of production lines due to which we almost saturated the market with gas concrete. Therefore, there was no more need to sell gas concrete blocks and we focused on the equipment production.

Since 2004 the company staff has enlarged, the overall production has increased, we have acquired foreign partners. Nowadays “AltaiStroyMash” company controls 90% of the niche market in Russia and a lot of CIS countries: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kirgizia etc.

Why do many entrepreneurs opt for “AltaiStroyMash”?

Aleksei Burdovitsin, the founder and company CEO has been employing a special approach to selling equipment since the first day of work. When asked, the competitors usually named the price for the equipment, whereas Aleksei Vladimirovich placed stakes on the service and started amicable communication with customers: clarifying their needs, offering the best options of production lines and complementary services.

It worked well and the “AltaiStroyMash” company still provides the best service for its clients. Our major aim is to surprise potential customers with service quality. Therefore, we offer not only to purchase the equipment for gas concrete production but also provide life-long maintenance and clear guidelines for further business development: how to hire employees, arrange product sales etc.

Thus, our client gets a ready-made business at the price of equipment. Besides, we always care that the investment of our partners is paid off as soon as possible and the business gets profitable.

“AltaiStroyMash” nowadays: what has changed in 18 years?

Obviously, a lot of changes have happened in these years and they are impossible to list now! Therefore, we will tell you about one of the most important and global issue- the introduction of the Japanese system of lean manufacturing.

What is lean manufacturing?

It is a special concept in production management based on regular striving to eliminate any losses: non-efficient work of specialists, unnecessary storage, etc. The system presupposes the deep involvement of each employee in the optimization process and company development as well as focusing on the ultimate consumer.

We have organized the system so that production issues were easy to notice. It provides for timely troubleshooting and solving the issue of defective articles. We do not punish the employee for defective articles and believe that should any problem arise the production system is to blame not an individual.

In the last several years we have rearranged both technological production processes and the mentality of our employees. For instance, before the introduction of lean manufacturing making a mixer took 3 workers between 2 and 4 days to produce. Now the same 3 workers are making the same mixer in 3 hours (and then, every 30 min they produce a new one!). Therefore, in short time we have managed to improve labor productivity of each specialist by 20 times!

We are introducing this efficient system at our clients’ production. As practice shows, some of them manage to do it. For instance, our clients from the Moscow region are manufacturing around 150 cubic meters of gas concrete every 24 hours at the line with design productivity of 100 m³ per 24 hours.

Cooperation with foreign partners

“AltaiStroyMash” company has been successfully cooperating with entrepreneurs in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other CIS countries. And it is just the beginning! Currently we are negotiating with potential clients from India, Egypt, Cambodia, UAE etc. A lot of developing countries have already faced (or will face soon) the construction boom which marks new horizons for developing gas concrete business.

Efficient interaction of departments: marketing and sales

Close interaction of marketing and sales departments is the driving force of business which helps to solve important business issues promptly and have a complete understanding with potential clients.

However, a lot of large companies do not have a marketing department at all. We have organized our operation so that our specialists are preparing texts and video-content almost daily and publish it in various media. The message is to provide the client with interesting and helpful information day by day. It provides great results:

• Our weekly e-mail messages have over 50 000 subscribers.
• “AltaiStroyMash” channel at YouTube accounts for about 30 000 subscribers.
• The company website has about 12 000 visitors monthly.

Successful operation of the marketing department provides specialists in the sales department with the regular flow of incoming calls and applications from interested clients. In their turn, the managers give the specialists in marketing feedback on how to improve some texts, tell them about FAQs and clients’ needs. It all shapes the topics for future content and advertising communication.

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