1932: Snepele Factory
The next nearest factory was in Kuldiga 18 kilometres away, but the Snepele factory only received milk from about 30 farms. The others processed the milk themselves and made butter which they sold in the market in Kuldiga. I suggested to the committee president that the two of us should canvas all of the farms in a 4-5 kilometre radius, which we visited on my motorbike. We offered them to try selling the milk to the factory for a month, we even lent them cans for transporting the milk. The results were surprisingly good; their income was 100% higher this way.
Our intake trebled instantly. That caused problems of processing, our plant was not big enough and the petrol motor driving it was small and worn out. I had to buy a steam engine in a hurry. In Vidzeme, the older horse drawn steam engines were very cheap because there they were installing fixed steam engines. The whole factory had to be rebuilt for steam use and to process 2000 litres an hour. So as not to run up debts, I bought second-hand machines from Vidzeme where the factories had been built too close together and now were combining.
It was a big job because I supervised the rebuilding and was responsible for setting up the machinery. I was also doing the bookkeeping. Milda started to work at the factory full-time and was helping with the books, keeping the farmers books up to date for milk delivered, and calculating the amount payable.
I am now surprised that we managed. We got up at 4 AM with the sunrise. Besides both of us, we had a cleaner. Milda manned the weighing stage receiving the milk and I made the butter and kept the machinery going. If something broke I took the parts and on my motorcycle went to Kuldiga where the specialists could repair, weld it, or make a new part. Getting back at night, I had to install the new part.
During my time there there was not a time that the factory was not operational. I considered my job not as a salaried employee but that I was personally responsible to get it done.
