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It’s hard for us to say “NO” to a customer

Are Trepid OÜ’s formula for success can be considered the desire to help every customer by creating unique, outstanding and reasonably priced precious wood stairs.

According to the owner and manager of the company, Alar Seppu, Estonian people do not like standard solutions, but appreciate special features. “We never tell the customer that it can’t be done this way or that it’s not done this way – if a person has his own vision of what kind of stairs he wants in his house, then our task is to make the customer’s wish come true,” says Seppu, who has graduated from construction joinery and stayed faithful to woodwork ever since. Ten years ago, when his time at another stair company came to an end, he created his own company to offer competitive pricing and above-average service in the industry.

In the form of stairs, it is a nuanced product that you may not understand at first glance. It seems unbelievable, but there is a lot of complexity behind the minimalist look. Are Trepid does not manufacture stairs according to the mass-produced catalog, but has taken a different path, being open to new ideas and making each staircase as a tailor’s work, so to speak: exactly as the customer wants. According to Alar Seppu, if we compare with the year 2005, when Are Trepid started, customers have become more aware, knowing exactly what they want and how long it takes to make a proper staircase. . “If earlier it was said that a staircase would be needed by tomorrow, because the rest of the house is ready, today the staircase is already ordered in the early stages of building construction. This gives the opportunity to change the stair opening and supports and to install the stairs in the house without damaging the paint and plaster work. It is understood that the stairs are part of the house.”

The new winds in the world of stairs are metal and glass. While in the early years, Are Trepid mainly manufactured solid wooden stairs, i.e. the load-bearing part of the stairs consisted of veneered cross plywood, wooden steps and wooden handrails, today the choice of materials has changed: around five years ago, a more airy and modern steel sheet was chosen for the frame, and its share is on the market also found glass stair railings attached with point fasteners. “The metal frame currently already accounts for 70-75 percent of our production, which made it necessary to create our own metal workshop last year.

The new workshop allows us to be more flexible than before in terms of product delivery time and price,” says Seppu. He adds that during the decade, the customers’ preference for the material of the stair treads, which is oak and ash glulam, has remained the same. . Are Trepid mainly uses American and European oak for its stairs. According to the reminiscences of the company manager, they have made only two pine wooden stairs in ten years. Although making different wooden products would fragment the company’s operations too much, Are Trepid has not said “no” to customers who ask for natural or tinted furniture and window sills similar to their stairs. About half of the company’s clients are private individuals, the other half are developers, architects and construction companies. In addition to the Estonian market, Are Trepid also produces stairs for export to Finland and Norway.

Over the past few years, Are Trepid has invested nearly 30,000 euros in woodworking and metalworking benches. According to Seppu, the company has always preferred high-quality tools to stay competitive. However, technology is developing fast enough that investments in equipment to produce as quickly as possible and stay competitive are essential. What does the future bring to Are Trepid? Alar Seppu thinks for a moment: “We would like to continue in the same way, offering customers exactly the kind of stairs that we ourselves would be happy to see in our own home. The first ten years have passed unnoticed – I hope the second ten will be the same. I would like to thank the customers for these beautiful years and, of course, the excellent employees, without whom we would not have come this far!”

The article was published in Äripäev.