When Volumetric Building Companies, VBC, bought Katerra’s factory in California, it needed someone to make it into a world-class modular factory.
Enter Helena Lidelöw, until recently the Head of R&D at Lindbäcks Bygg, in Piteå, Sweden.
I had a chance to talk with Helena and asked her about her move to VBC and what her plans were for the former Katerra factory. With her extensive experience with automated modular factories in Europe, she said she’s ready for this unique challenge.
Katerra’s factory was primarily an automated wall panel plant and her challenge is to add the remainder of a modular production line after the wall panels are completed. That part of VBC’s transition from a wall panel plant to a full modular factory could take a year or more to complete.
When I asked what she thought of the Katerra plant, her reaction was that there is so much innovation within the factory it will be fun to figure out how to use it all.
Now that Polcom Group has merged with VBC, Helena said that Polcom’s vast experience in the hospitality side of modular will be quite the influencer at VBC’s CA factory where projects like affordable housing complexes will be the main products.
When asked how she is adjusting to the US, she said she already had a good knowledge of what types of factories were here as there is growing transparency within the modular factories. She said Sweden is about the size of one of our states and was a little surprised by the regional differences across the US.
I predict it won’t be long before she begins putting all the diverse pieces of VBC’s giant puzzle together to bring European efficiency into the American modular construction industry. I also believe she will share what she does with anyone that wants to listen. I know I will be following her journey.
Welcome aboard Helena Lidelöw, the right person at the right time to begin helping VBC continue to grow, not only in the US but around the world.
VBC has a modular factory serving the Eastern US in Hamlet, NC, the newly acquired factory in Tracy, CA and the Polcom modular factory in Chojnice, Poland.
Related Articles:
- Vaughan Buckley Construction Opens Modular Factory In North Carolina
- Volumetric Building Companies And Polcom Group Complete Merger
- VBC’s Acquisition Of Kattera, Inc Is Official
Gary Fleisher is Editor in Chief of Modular Home Source and the Offsite Builder. Email at [email protected]
