Knauf Insulation celebrates 10 years of success in Russia

Knauf Insulation’s operations in Russia started in September 2004 with just a handful of employees to cover the country’s vast territories.The team was so successful that within three years the company had built a completely new production plant in the Moscow suburb city of Stupino to meet demand.Today there are more than 350 people working for Knauf Insulation at Stupino and in January this year the company opened a second plant in Tyumen to focus on exciting new opportunities in East Russia and countries such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.Celebrating the 10th anniversary, Knauf Insulation’s CEO Tony Robson said: “This achievement would not have been possible without the continued hard work of all our employees and the strong support of the communities where we operate.“The past 10 years have been hard work but rewarding and I am sure will pave the way for another fruitful decade of successful business.”During operations in Russia, Knauf Insulation has revolutionised the market with the 2010 introduction of Glass Mineral Wool with ECOSE® Technology – based on renewable materials instead of petro-based chemicals – and launched a wide range of customised solutions that have been welcomed by both construction industry professionals and homeowners keen to save energy.Underpinning the success of company in Russia have been the Knauf Family Values of Commitment, Entrepreneurship, Partnership and Menschlichkeit.Knauf Insulation Russia & CIS General manager Pavel Vishnyakov sees the secret of the company’s success as keeping lines of communication open between management and employees, encouraging innovative ways of carrying out operations, nurturing a culture of mutual respect and working closely with the community through, for example, the support of local charities.Knauf Insulation also introduced 10 bottle recycling collection points around the Stupino district that contributes between three and five tonnes of glass every month to the plant saving around 50,000 tonnes of glass being sent to district’s landfill site.In early 2013 there was zero glass collection in the city.

“We recently carried out interviews with our employees for our first newsletter to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of operations in Russia and the overwhelming response was that Knauf Insulation offered an environment in which everyone could thrive. That’s something to be proud of,” said Daria Smulskaya, Knauf Insulation’s Human Resources Development Manager Russia and CIS.