Building Careers and Conveyors: Kaspars and Guillaume's Story
When Kaspars Stempelis graduated from school and went to work for Caljan’s Latvia plant back in 2011, his first project was assembling conveyors that were purchased by a Brazilian company. Guillaume Rannou, who had also just started with Caljan in Brazil, was assigned as the installer.
The two would partner – while working in different countries – to create their customer’s new telescopic conveyor. Both of them are still working with Caljan today and found a moment in their busy schedules to revisit the project they worked on 13 years earlier and reflect on how it compares to the industry today.
“I believe the conveyor we installed was one of the very first Caljan conveyor systems produced in Latvia,” says Kaspars. “This project was a little different than others because the conveyor was so big – and there were eight units in total. This CB5X was the first conveyor that I was responsible for from beginning to completion.”
At the time, Guillaume had just sold his first telescopic conveyor. In addition to working in sales, he was also a project manager and would lead the installation.
“Our customer was a textile retailer who was adding conveyors to unload containers that were shipped from China,” said Guillaume. “The company also loaded trailers to send textiles to their customers in South America. They only had four units to unload everything, with separate units on the other side of the building for loading.”
Due to space restraints, the new conveyor design required a short base and a long extension to accommodate five different sections – which made it pretty unique.
Kaspars elaborates: “It was also quite high because they wanted to maneuver the front of the conveyor from the floor to the ceiling using a hydraulic. So, it had to start from a central point in the trailers.”
While assembling the conveyor, Kaspars and Guillaume received a special request.
“The customer wanted employees to communicate with each other on both sides of the conveyor,” said Guillaume. “So we ran a cable from the front to the rear, with a plug for microphone in front and a plug for headset on the other side. This way the front operator could pull textiles and provide the measurements for the other employee to prepare a label. They could then attach the label when the textile came down the conveyor.”
“It sounds primitive now, but at the time it was a clever solution for the customer,” added Kaspars. “I knew that Caljan was really good at providing customized solutions, but I didn’t know we could do this. What a satisfying result!”
Kaspars also reflects on another element that has changed significantly over time.
“Back then total production took more than a month but today we’d be able to complete it in three to five days.”
The project changed how Guillaume viewed his sales approach – and how he could serve customers.
“When I began selling conveyors, I was mainly reaching out to parcel carriers. After working with this textile manufacturer, I realized that we could help a lot of other businesses as well.”
After many years of serving a wide variety of customers, the two got a chance to meet each other for the first time in Latvia in 2024.
That catch-up turned out to be quite the managers' summit – after building their careers for 14 years with Caljan, Kaspars is currently a Service Operations Manager, and Guillaume is a Service and Project Manager.
Such inspired and consistent growth is so rewarding to see for us at Caljan. The way these bright individual storylines intertwine to create a larger narrative is nothing short of impressive, and we are proud to put these stories into the spotlight. Meanwhile we keep working to provide an environment that fosters development so that there are many more stories to bring you.
See how Caljan’s technology has evolved
Just like Kaspars and Guillaume, Caljan’s technology has come a long way since 2011. It has both changed the landscape in health and safety for workers and increased productivity.
To mention just one example – the Caljan ErgoRider. It brings the belt closer to your parcels and eliminates the need for floor support. Paired with a Performer telescopic conveyor it creates an integrated solution that eases the loading and unloading of loose-loaded cargo. Something we could only dream about a dozen years ago, yet here we are today!
Watch this short video to see it in action: