Investment in the training, consulting, auditing, and virtual reality industries.
For Brasov in general, and the business environment in particular, the end of 2022 represented a moment when new investors chose not to reduce their operations but, on the contrary, to expand them. ENCONA Limited chose Brasov in Romania as the starting point for its European operations.
ENCONA is a well-established training, engineering, and consulting company with headquarters in Canada and branches in the United States of America, South Africa, Taiwan, and a satellite office in Germany. It is also a proud accredited license partner of the VDA QMC.
The story began in 2007 when young engineer Hans Trunkenpolz decided that the years he worked as an engineer at BMW Germany were enough and chose the path of entrepreneurship - he founded ENCONA, the name of the company incorporating the services it offers: ENGineering CONsulting Academy.
Hans shares that "My family and close friends thought I was slightly crazy choosing to resign from a company like BMW and start my own consulting company! They were even more convinced of this as my career within the German car manufacturer was a strong upward one with very good potential to reach the highest management levels. The decision, however, was a very good one and today I am proud of what ENCONA has become over the years."
In 2007 ENCONA started with one man who did everything for one client. Today ENCONA counts over 500 companies from over 40 countries as clients, a consistent team of specialists in various areas, over 150 trainers, consultants, and auditors, and over 500 projects successfully completed in the automotive field.
"We are a "boutique" company with a very well-defined global presence. We are currently working on both technical and non-technical training projects, as well as consulting and auditing projects for OEMs (preferred supplier for Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen, supplier for Audi, BMW, Ford, KTM, and more) and suppliers (Autoliv, Continental, NBHX Rolem, Faurecia, Mahle, and many others). I want to thank all of them for being with us for a long time." said Lloyd Staples, part-owner and Chief Executive Officer of the ENCONA Group.
As for so many others, the pandemic period was complicated for ENCONA, but fast adaption to the new reality and strategic management resulted in growth rather than reduction, with the group's operations expanding.
Lloyd shares the decision-making process: "We carefully analyzed the market and Romania stood out quite quickly as a winning solution. The big players in the automotive market, the mature and balanced business environment, and the outstanding specialists that Romania can offer convinced us. Brasov then came as a natural choice - one of our favorite clients is also one of the biggest employers in Brasov. His recommendation counted a lot, but we liked Brasov for many other reasons as well - the strong business environment, the strategic location in the center of the country, the friendly attitude of the big companies already established here, and the human quality of the people of Brasov contributed to our final decision in choosing Brasov to open ENCONA Romania."
The Romanian Operations are coordinated by Dan Kulcsar. Dan is from Brasov, a psychologist specializing in educational sciences, and comes to ENCONA after 7 years in the media landscape and another 11 in the business environment, having previously managed half of the country's branches for one of the largest HR companies in Romania.
"ENCONA meant an excellent opportunity to grow in my career and it came at the right time. The convergence of training as a psychologist, specializing in educational sciences, and experience gained in media and HR services, have now found a favorable environment to generate beautiful results. I really liked the approach of the two owners of the ENCONA Group, Hans Trunkenpolz and Lloyd Staples, the business model, the sustained and constant growth worldwide, and the other management team colleagues. I joined for the challenge of opening the operation. I am proud of my city and the fact that a global group in the field of engineering, technical training, consulting, and auditing has chosen it as a strategic place for the development of the business and I am convinced that the value brought to the area and the inhabitants will be evident soon." declared Dan.
ENCONA brings services that most manufacturing companies will be able to benefit from: technical training delivered by real-world experts, non-technical training delivered by organizational psychology specialists, technical consulting in production, auditing, and an innovative business line that includes elements of virtual reality and augmented reality applied in production.
This makes the following scenario a real-life reality: replicating a machine, a production line, or even an entire factory, in a virtual reality room where global colleagues can meet for productive sessions whilst viewing the production lines with real-time parameters. The applicability is evident in the maintenance processes but is also a very good alternative for the technical training of new colleagues. Studies say that the option to transfer training from reality to virtual reality generates a cost reduction of up to 70%.
"Neuroscience has always been a passion for me, and when the opportunity appeared for ENCONA to develop a business line dedicated to the Virtual and Augmented Reality arena I took advantage of it immediately. I am happy to announce that Brasov has offered us excellent resources from this point of view, as a result, we decided to purchase a controlling (managing) share package of the Vector Apps company from Brasov. A young company which is already known to the people of Brasov and has extremely skilled and talented employees, that is now part of the ENCONA family!" shared Lloyd Staples.
Many companies that produce components for the automotive manufacturing industry consistently choose ENCONA for increasing their team skills through specific training, improving the efficiency of their production processes, and improving their customer & supplier relationships.