Liubertas Strazdas' career: from loader to international procurement management

Liubertas Strazdas, as he says, grew up working at Vilniaus Duona. From a 19-year-old young man, for whom the position of a loader was his first job, to the father of two children and the chief manager of international procurement, who is happy to be called by colleagues for consultations.

Liubert, how did the roads lead to Vilnius Bread?

This was my first job, I just came to earn money, I got a job as a loader in a warehouse. Then I looked for myself in other jobs, finished my studies at the university, and somehow a colleague I met a few years later said, come back to us. I went back to work as a loader.

I was always offered to try something more, so I became a storekeeper, then a shift manager. After some time, he offered to replace a colleague for a couple of years in supervision of local procurement from suppliers, the position of procurement manager. And that "temporarily" turned into another five-year career.

And what does the procurement manager do?

Responsible for purchases for the Lithuanian market. Everything related to this: contracts, their execution, planning, suppliers, in addition to this, I am also responsible for pest prevention, supply of employees' clothing and cleaning of premises. The team is the same, it hasn't changed for 5 years, so we've worked together, we know each other.

Over the past five years, I have had to improve my English a lot, because I haven't used it at work since my school days. Now it's not even a foreign language – just the everyday language of business.

What changed when you became the head coach? manager?

This autumn, I switched from the Lithuanian market to international procurement, became the chief purchasing manager, so now I supervise procurement in all the Baltic States and Finland. Now my areas of curation are spices, packaging and purchased products.

The main markets I work with are Finland, Estonia and Lithuania. The team also includes colleagues from these countries, we work in seven: five managers and two assistants.

I have to travel a lot to these countries, meet suppliers, partners, it is very important to see them directly, to keep in touch. Although online meetings are held non-stop.

You have been working at Vilnius Bread for almost ten years. And what advice would you give to a person who is on his first day here?

First of all, come and try it. Don't be afraid to express your opinion, especially reasoned ones. I was never silent, I was myself. The team is large – they will notice if you are yourself.

And there are a lot of opportunities here, just use it when you offer to try it. It's not boring really. If I am offered to do something new in the company, I agree. And why not give it a try.

You're raising two kids. What do you tell them about your work?

We had children when I was working at Vilniaus Duona, now the boys are 3 and 8 years old. They know that I work at Vilniaus Duona, when we are in the store, I show our products. For example, I recently showed the "Capital" baguette, the packaging of which I worked on to reduce the amount of plastic used for it by 10 percent.

From the bag, it doesn't seem much?

Ten percent of the bag seems to be not much – but in a year it saves as much plastic as 3 passenger cars, which is both fuel savings and a cleaner environment.

We are reviewing the packaging portfolio because the goal is to reduce the amount of non-essential packaging as much as possible. We are currently implementing seven projects.

And what annoys you at work?

Well, maybe you can get annoyed at home, and you have to look for solutions at work. Of course, most of the stress was when the corona pandemic began: price jumps, question marks about supply, non-compliance with deadlines, such things really cause tension. But then everyone was very focused, heads of departments and up to the highest level managers, everyone who could help to deal with the situation and operational disruptions were avoided. Although during the entire corona period I was only in the office live maybe five times in two years, we mostly managed remotely.

Colleagues, cold nerves and a sober mind help a lot. And the last two, apparently, come with age and experience.

What day does it have to be at work to call it good?

When at the end of the day you feel like you've solved a bunch of things. The problems have been solved, the problems have been fixed, everything is in order.

When colleagues call to ask for something, they say "you know best".

When you realize that when the day is over, there are no hanging unresolved issues left, you go home calmly. (The next day, of course, there will be heaps of those unresolved issues again. But I like it when there are no more of them at the end of the working day.)

When everything works, no one stops. After all, if the products are not delivered on time, the entire production may come to a standstill. I am glad that we manage to prevent this from happening.

It is a great responsibility to ensure that there is no disruption to the factory, that everything from the suppliers arrives on time.

How will you rest?

My best rest is in the countryside. Of course, you have to work there, but otherwise – in my work, I mostly work with my mind, while in the countryside – you mow the grass, work physically, and then rest in the evening. Children are very much looking forward to those trips to the countryside and escapes from the city. I like peace and quiet the most.

When my sons grew up, I rediscovered my childhood favorite Lego construction, adult series. It takes more than ten hours to put together such a work. My sons and I arrange – they are mine, I am mine. I especially love the works of the Star Wars series.

I also have a hobby, numismatics, and I have been interested in it for more than a decade. Even when there were litas, I noticed that I had a few commemorative coins in my pocket, I kept them and so I gradually got involved in this hobby. I collect old Lithuanian and German coins, mostly from the twentieth century. The most interesting of the available coins, perhaps, is the 10 litas coin that was in circulation during the time of Antanas Smetona, valuable.

What does bread mean to you?

I eat bread every day, I choose simply according to which one tastes the most to me, I eat both black and white.

I like "Grandmothers" and "Toast" the most. I don't like bread that contains seeds.

What made you smile last time at work?

When you finish the work, you solve the problem, then inside you smile. When colleagues talk in a friendly way, they joke. We find a common language with our colleagues, because the team is stable, it gives good work, we communicate in a friendly and easy way.

What could you teach in an hour?

I don't know in an hour, but within a month I trained a colleague to take over and independently supervise orders for packaging and raw materials, as well as other smaller procurement work.