The Lipetsk refrigeration plant: 25 years of a long journey
It is incredible how fast time passes. And it is even more incredible to think that 25 years have already passed since the first refrigerator came out from the Lipetsk plant. It was 1993, and since then more than 25 million refrigerators were produced. During this 25 years, the plant has been managed by the Russian Stinol, the Italian Indesit and, at the end, the global Whirlpool Corporation. It is an amazing story that can be divided in four different — but equally meaningful — periods of time.
1990–1993: Built with love
The story of the Lipetsk plant began in 1989, when the Russian NLMK and the Italian Merloni Progetti decided to build together a refrigerator plant. In 1990, after 7 years of experience as manufacturing leader in other factories, I joined a small Russian team in this new project. I immediately fell in love with this place even though everything was just at the beginning. However, enthusiasm and passion were huge drivers for all our team.
1993–2000: Russian Stinol, a great local team was born
In July 1993, the refrigerator plant was officially inaugurated. It was a very challenging time! As industrial engineering leader, I had to manage the team in charge for the implementation of the new technologies to support the production and subsequently I also had to provide new product range to increase the sales and reach the full plant’s capacity. Thanks to great and talented Lipetsk team we succeeded in all our goals. The main lesson I learned is that with the right people you can face every challenge.
2000–2014: Lipetsk plant became Italian
Starting from 2000, the Lipetsk plant was managed by Merloni Elettrodomestici, which became Indesit in 2005. That time was extremely intense as many new foreign players started to penetrate the Russian market. We were under pressure and we also added the production of washing machine in the area. Moreover, I spent 2 years working in Italy to improve my professional skills and fit better in a European context. Again, the team spirit and the extremely talented people I worked with helped me and the plant to overcome this time. However, the 2008 world crisis impacted also the production of our plant. New times were coming…
2014–2018: Global Whirlpool, Global Challenge
In 2014, Whirlpool Corporation took over Indesit and the Lipetsk plant was integrated into this truly global organization. Today, the Lipetsk plant is still in charge for the production of the high competitive refrigerators. In the meantime, my team has been integrated with the global team and I work as Lipetsk Site Leader GPO, Refrigeration.
The Lipetsk plant celebrates its 25th anniversary and I am immensely proud to have been part of it since the very beginning. Every challenge and every transformation we went through help me to grow as a professional and learn every time a new lesson. Most importantly, this anniversary is the perfect occasion to thank all my previous and current colleagues with whom I had the privilege to take this incredible journey.
Sergey Sablin
Site Leader Lipetsk, Top Mount/Bottom Mount Architecture
