MTZ Director General on company’s work under sanctions
The sanctions failed to slow down the production at the Minsk Tractor Works (MTZ) while opening up new opportunities for the national brand – as noted by MTZ representatives in their talk with the STV TV channel
MTZ Director General Vitaly Vovk underlined that due to the introduction of sanctions, the market has narrowed, though the requirements for the quality of products have increased.
“The fact that the BELARUS tractors in our country are sold with a 3-5 year warranty already says a lot. It is simply impossible to give a guarantee for no reason. If you are not confident in the product, there will be a collapse. I won’t say that we have fully settled all the issues with our partners, but we are taking confident steps to ensure that the price-quality ratio of our joint product is in demand on the market and is accepted by our consumers,” he added.
According to Head of MTZ Competence Centre Mikhail Ledvik the sanctions did not live up to the expectations of those who introduced them, “In fact, this enabled us to wake up, not to rest on our laurels, not to rely on someone else’s developments and technologies, but to think about developing on our own. This actually gave impetus to develop this direction. Yes, this created certain difficulties for the transition period, because they were closely tied to co-operation with Western supplies of components, but whoever does not fight and does not want to survive will not survive,” he emphasised.
MTZ Deputy Director General for Quality Igor Zemtsov noted that the sanctions stimulated the company to work not only in traditional markets, where they are already accustomed to buying components.
“This situation encouraged us to reconsider our suppliers, somewhere to reconsider the design in terms of its improvement. In general, the situation is now stable. We understand our level, we understand where our suppliers are located, and work with them. The latter were not all ready for the requirements that our quality system puts forward. Because we have methods right up to auditing the supplier, when we come and inspect in detail the entire chain of how a product is manufactured for us – production, control, shipment, identification – enabling us to understand everything and to be confident in this supplier,” he said.
