“The culture is deeply rooted in DeLaval’s DNA”

Andris Bariss, Technical Director Eastern Europe, manages a dedicated team of 155 people. Through passion, resilience, and teamwork, they conduct some of our major projects in Eastern Europe. Read more about his story here.

Andris’s journey in DeLaval began back in April 2011. He had just moved back home to his native Latvia after an assignment in his previous company and felt he was ready for a change. While searching for jobs, Andris came across DeLaval and instantly saw it as the most attractive opportunity. By speaking with DeLaval representatives, he could feel the company culture really resonated with him and the choice was there and then easy to make.

“I started working as the Baltic LSO Manager. However, a few years later in 2016, the DeLaval structure was changed, and the LSOs (Local Sales Organisations) was replaced with the larger Market Areas. During this transition, I switched to a more technical role that I still have to this day,” says Andris.

As many of our DeLaval employees have, Andris has a job role that requires him to work with many different colleagues across various departments, making each day unique. “Every day is different. The only common denominator is Teams as a communications tool, but otherwise, the topics we discuss change a lot. My daily work scope includes 13 countries and altogether I manage a team of 155 people. In this team, we work with two different business models. First, we have our direct business in a few countries where we have our own service technicians, installers, and technical support personnel directly serving our customers. Second, we have our dealership business in the other countries. Here we have our own technical support personnel, but the dealer ensures direct interaction with the customers,” Andris explains.

Having worked in DeLaval for 11 years, Andris has had many interesting experiences. One that sticks out the most is the service part of our business. In previous companies, the development of that hasn’t achieved any major results. However, that changed as he joined Team Blue. “When I joined DeLaval in the Baltics, there was already a good base of the service business to build from. It was very interesting and rewarding to see how it evolved and I had a fantastic opportunity to be part of that development. Today, the service business is really important for DeLaval and we have achieved great results,” Andris happily says.

What has made an even more lasting impression on him are the people at DeLaval. His colleagues, both in his own team and across the organisation, is the main reason he really enjoys his workplace. “If we are critical, we can identify several this that can be improved in our processes, but what is ever present is the dedication from all employees. Everyone is passionate, candid, friendly, and always ready to do their best and help you. The company culture is deeply rooted in DeLaval’s DNA,” he says.

The Market Area Eastern Europe comprises of many countries, which means many different technical teams work together and share experiences locally and across countries. One of the teams that Andris would like to mention is the rotary team. It was formed back in 2008, but the big breakthrough happened in 2017. This was thanks to the EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) Cluster made the Latvian-based rotary team in charge of most of Europe’s rotary installations. “It took a while to recruit people, train them, certify installation leaders, and develop proper processes. We now have several teams that can handle multiple installations at the same time,” Andris says. “I would like to especially mention the fantastic and positive team spirit shown during the trying times as COVID-19 infections surged across the globe and the restrictions that followed as a result. The team had to work extra hard, sometimes without break, and without having engineering support from Product Management & Development (PMD) in person on the farm. I want to express my gratitude to all my hard-working colleagues for their resilience throughout this time. This gratitude extends to all colleagues in Eastern Europe for their work to help our customers and keep them satisfied during COVID-19, and for all the support we get from our technical colleagues across DeLaval,” Andris says.

Going forward, many exciting projects are happening in 2022 and onwards for Andris and his team. “We have too many projects going on, so it is hard to choose one. But we are, for example, changing some details in our direct markets that will increase the efficiency of our services. We also have several projects with multiple DeLaval VMS™ V300 units and PR3100HD rotaries that I look forward to. I think we will have a very fun second half of 2022,” Andris concludes.

Thank you, Andris, for sharing your story and what you and your team do here at DeLaval. We look forward to hearing more about your achievement later down the line!