An interview with Inita Bendzule, Board Member of “AW Latvia”

A colleague of mine, returning from a trip, noticed the company’s information stand at the airport… That is how we became interested in you!

The company “AW Latvia” has two brand names. One – “Antique Wood” – covers various carpentry products made from recycled timber. The second brand – “Wooden Wall Design” – offers decorative wall panels made from both reclaimed and solid wood. The raw material is sourced from old houses slated for demolition, from old barns, outbuildings, and so on. Figuratively speaking, we give a second breath to things that would otherwise rot, collapse, or be burned.

How do you find out that a building you are interested in is going to be demolished and that the material might be available? Tell us about your sources. One is what we see while walking or driving, the other is the owner and their plans…

We obtain information in various ways. We place advertisements for the purchase of “old” timber. In the Smiltene area and nearby districts, the news “travels” by word of mouth – people tell each other. Recently, we have been offering to “change the siding boards” – for example, we put new ones on an old barn and take the old ones for ourselves. The barn remains, we have our material, and everyone is satisfied! As I mentioned, people pass the information on to one another through conversation!

There is a certain similarity to the tale of Aladdin – exchanging an old lamp (wood) for a new one! Is the response (agreement) high?

You could say that! Our work is planned, it happens sequentially, and we currently have enough material. As for the waste… the wastage is high; not everything from a demolished building is usable. We must not forget that back in the day, when buildings were being constructed, they did not use the chemicals available today that protect timber from environmental factors and help it last longer. They relied on natural processes. Trees were felled at the right time, in the right month, and were seasoned by being left in the forest for a certain period. If these conditions and sequences were followed at the time, the material has been preserved very well! If, for some reason, this was not done, you can tell immediately – the wood is brittle, already damaged, and practically unusable, because water and sun are no longer the best friends of wood that has already been felled and placed into a structure.

If an owner is happy to get rid of an old barn, what is the other part – the client’s role? Tell us about the demand…

We work with an export focus, and the majority of our orders come from countries in the Alpine region. There are still quite ancient traditions there: in any mountain resort whose owners have high self-respect and self-awareness, it is necessary to use reclaimed wood in the buildings. We can use the word traditions or requirements, but there must be reclaimed wood, full stop!

Your products and Latvia. The Alps and Gaiziņš or Lielais Liepukalns – each to their own.

We primarily operate in the export market, but of course, there are jobs (projects) that have been completed in Latvia. For example, in the Latvian resort city of Sigulda, next to the “Tarzāns” amusement park, there is a café called “Kokos” where the visible wall paneling and doors were manufactured by us. Then, our products are in the new “Latvijas valsts meži” customer service building in Dundaga. There are several cafés in Riga. We also carried out a project that was interesting to us in Switzerland, where, in cooperation with the Estonian builders who were constructing the building, we clad the load-bearing structures with our “old” wood, because the client wanted the exterior wall and interior finish to be from the same timber.

Construction using wood and Latvia. Is there any caution noticeable, or…

We regularly participate in international construction exhibitions, showing our products and, of course, seeing what others are doing. We see that at least two or three log house builders participate and are represented at Latvia’s national stands. It is difficult to judge how in-demand and active log building construction is domestically! I, myself, am definitely a supporter and fan of wooden houses.

Has it ever happened that you refused a material supplier and convinced them that the building should be preserved?

No, we have no such cases in our experience! Our team consists of professionals who know and understand wood structures well – when they see a building, they quickly realize whether we will be able to use anything, whether the building should be left to collapse, or if it can be used in some other way. We also have to turn down owners because the material is simply no longer usable. Unfortunately, there are disorganized matters in Latvia where the inability to manage or preserve something is solved radically – with matches or similar means.

A good enough example in Latvia is Jūrmala, where there has traditionally been a development of wooden buildings as a resort; many of the buildings have been renovated and look very good. Or, for instance, the Kalnciems Quarter. Of course, maintaining a wooden house is not a cheap pleasure.

The company’s other brand is “Wooden wall design”. Wall paneling.

Yes, the second brand (line of work) was created after realizing that when exporting old wood, we were left with a lot of offcuts! Initially, we burned them… using them instead of firewood to run our drying kilns. It was a shame, because the material was good, usable, and uniquely one-of-a-kind. We started thinking about how it could be applied, and through experimentation, various models were created. Some of these are currently offered to clients, some never saw the light of day. At present, we have 24 wall paneling models in our range that we offer. We started with old wood, but now we also offer wall panels made from “new” wood.

What kind of wood (timber) do you receive?

Various. Both logs and sawn timber. Mostly from the Vidzeme region, as logging is quite active in our area.

How do you like the bustling Vidzeme?

I am from Riga myself, and my arrival in the woodworking and wood-related industry was quite accidental. We started from the “starting line,” from the very beginning – that is, there was an idea that I was invited to join. Eight years have passed since then.

When we started working in the current premises, a woodworking shop was already operating here. At one time, this building housed a metalworking workshop. If you remember the waste bins in apartments from 30 years ago – green with a pedal – they were produced here!

In Smiltene and Vidzeme in general, the environment is very well-kept. Both the environment around us and the environment for the entrepreneur! As a former Riga resident, I must say that Riga should learn from the locals here on how to maintain infrastructure, how to think about development, and everything else! In Smiltene, you can see tidy roads and streets, flower beds, and well-maintained houses; even if you see that a homeowner’s means are not great, the yard and the surroundings are still kept neat!

You can find out a lot about the company (brands) on the website…

We can only be happy about that; a lot of work is invested in it! We are also quite active with social media – our Facebook page currently has about 277,000 followers from all over the world. The number is increasing every day; perhaps by the day this interview is published, there will already be 280,000.

With the help of social media, we have found one dealer or another, because we do not work (or more accurately, rarely work) with the end consumer, only in cases where we do not have a dealer in a specific country. Of course, we sell directly to Latvian clients ourselves. Advertising on social media “works”; we feel it from the returns – after placing an ad, we receive an order, which means someone has noticed, researched, and turned to our cooperation partners (dealers).

Since our products are usable and used in many places, we often do not know who the user will be, the end recipient, or in which country or building our work will find its place. We know the biggest projects – hotels, restaurants, there is even one school in Germany. It has also happened that we look at photos of an interior and see: “Look, our material!”

How large is your team?

It will be about 50 people. Employee involvement in processes varies. As I mentioned, there are specific products in the catalogue that can be chosen. If a client wants a special design from old wood, they can send drawings or sketches, we calculate, and we see how it can be implemented. There are problems with qualified labor, but in my opinion, that affects any manufacturing company. In our area, there are many woodworking companies; there are so-called “wandering” employees who work for a short time for one entrepreneur, then another, then a third. We have a long-term (permanent) workforce that forms the core of our team. We offer dormitories for employees because people come from nearby regions, work for the working week, and go home on the weekend! They do not live too far away, but the commute back and forth is not feasible daily for various reasons.

It should be noted that there are no schools that would teach how to work only with old wood. It is a combination of human experience, skills, and intuition. Not every professional and qualified carpenter can work with old wood; it takes time and new skills, as this wood has its own specifics.

Are clients also interested in the wood species?

That is one of the questions they ask! The distribution of species, if you can put it that way, by country is interesting. For example, for the Germans, oak is in first place! Oak products are highly sought after in Germany, even though they are among the most expensive. Speaking of old wood, the most accessible (or those historically used in construction) in Latvia are pine and spruce, which, logically, we also offer. They often do not ask about the age of the material, but it is a very important fact that this is reclaimed material – thus, environmentally friendly. The awareness that you are environmentally friendly often “switches off” other questions. The advantage of our products is the “Latvian silvery-grey tone,” a color characteristic of local, old wooden buildings. For comparison, in the Alps, under the mountain sun, old wood often turns dark, almost black.

Do you have many competitors in Latvia?

I don’t think so, at least looking at the volumes. The competitors are elsewhere in Europe, in the already mentioned Alpine region, where there are many buildings, plenty of material, and high demand.

We have also started producing furniture. There is a product line that is made only from old wood. Then there is new MDF combined with old wood. We can say that it is a product line, but the pattern of every piece of furniture will be different. Every board that has spent time in the sun will be different. In their geometric lines, the furniture is the same, in construction too, but you can sit and study, study, study for a long, long time… the wood grain and see something new every time.

(Photographs of Inita Bendzule and “AW Latvia” were used)