“This was a project, which was really big – maybe it turns out to be the biggest project in my life”.

A factory extension project was kicked-off in 2015, when we first time started to foresee an overload of new project implementations, and lack of space, as well as capacity constraints. Many actions were connected to operational excellence allowing us to accommodate additional work into the company up to +100%. 30 revisions of a business plan were executed before the final approval.

Mid 2017, when we celebrated a 70 year anniversary of Fortaco Estonia, we officially announced the start of the extension project. This will be an investment of 10.000 m2 in factory floor as well as investments in several welding robots, CNC machines and bending capacity, in total 10 MEUR. The extension project was supported by the Estonian government with the amount of approx. 1 MEUR.

Before autumn 2017 old buildings were demolished, and we started technical design for a new production hall. After extensive technical and commercial preparations a construction work was started by a contractor, Rand and Tuulberg, during summer 2019. We assigned Andrey Ponomarev from Fortaco Estonia as Project Manager. Andrey was doing excellent job in cooperation with all stakeholders. Thanks to all dedicated work done by the project team, partners, Fortaco Estonia Leadership Team, we managed to finish construction work successfully in August 2020 – according to time schedule.

”This was the biggest project I have participated from a concept and design stage, and I think this was like a fresh wave for us in our daily routine jobs. There were some challenges during the project, but all of them have been analyzed and worked through for a next similar project. The most memorable moments are in the beginning and at the end of construction; I was participating in project documentation and development for two years before the real construction work was started, and it was nice to see the factory layout starting to be realized with equipment installation” – Andrey Ponomarev.

In 2020 Fortaco Estonia was awarded by the Estonian government as the best company for its’ contribution to the regional development of Narva, Ida-Virumaa county. In 2019 Fortaco Estonia was awarded as the best company of Narva city for the result.

I would like to thank all who contributed to this successful project. I am happy that Fortaco Estonia will now have wider possibilities to boost new business implementation and support customers’ supply chain strategies. I am also very glad that our employees will get working conditions with advanced technologies to develop their skills.

I am sure, this will be a great continuation on our road to success.

Larissa Shabunova
Managing Director
Fortaco Estonia