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DE 
From Frank-Uwe Michel
Patrick Tschotow looks at his latest project, which is nearing completion, with a broad smile: The boundary stones have already been laid. An excavator is using its shovel to fill a few uneven areas in front of hall no. 3 of PT Fliesen und Innenausbau GmbH with gravel. Next week, the almost 2,000 square meter area in the upper part of the Am Spitzberg industrial estate in Oderwitz will be asphalted. Large semi-trailers that were previously parked on the road and blocking traffic can then be unloaded here. The icing on the cake is the labeling of the building and the site. This will make it clear to everyone how much the company founded by Patrick Tschotow in July 2015 has grown in recent years.
The 38-year-old is no old-school craftsman, dashing from building site to building site with a notepad in his hand and a pencil behind his ear. The Oderwitz entrepreneur is a visionary who gradually implements his ideas, relying on the possibilities of modern times - in terms of materials, production and marketing. His cell phone is his constant companion - not so much for making calls, but rather as a camera. He uses small clips to show what is happening in the company, what his employees are doing - but also when there are staff changes. Tchotov has just welcomed a new apprentice - his fourth to date. He is already being introduced in a short story on Instagram.
Tchotov lives and breathes his business and is fully committed to what he does. And he is breaking new ground, not following well-trodden paths. He describes himself as a "full-blooded entrepreneur" who really enjoys building beautiful things. Over the past few years, he has achieved a level of development that is anything but a matter of course among craft companies - especially in these difficult times. "In the beginning, I was on my own - with a trowel and a van, which was almost falling apart because of its age," he recalls. Prior to this, Tschotow spent some time working as a tiler in Switzerland and looked at interiors and bathrooms in various tourism businesses in Austria.
He started in Oderwitz with many ideas in his luggage. He took over a company site on the Spitzberg industrial estate, rebuilt it and expanded the site. In 2020, a new 500 square meter hall was added, which was intended as a showroom to show customers many creative bathroom solutions and the ever-evolving materials used to implement the ideas. At that time, Tchotov already had 15 employees.
After that, however, everything turned out differently than expected: the demand for his company's services threw the original plans overboard. PT Fliesen und Innenausbau GmbH and the now newly founded PT Holzmanufaktur GmbH had to reorient themselves. The result is now the third hall - with a floor area three times as large as No. 2. The workforce has also grown and has almost doubled in the past four years: Patrick Tschotow currently employs 26 tilers, carpenters, drywallers and office staff. And there could be even more if there were suitable specialist staff.
With his two companies, the Oderwitz native now produces all interior design projects himself. In addition to bathrooms, this also includes living rooms and bedrooms, the matching wall and ceiling design, including furniture production. He employs five carpenters and a project manager for the wood sector alone. They, as well as the other colleagues, but above all the customers, should benefit from the construction of the large hall. Tschotow had already acquired an 8,000 square meter plot of land for this purpose in 2022, and the hall itself has an area of just under 1,500 square meters.
Part of it is leased to Martin Hille and his company More Profit, which specializes in computer-controlled dispensing systems. The largest part, however, is used to store the construction chemicals required for interior work and tiling: adhesives, leveling compounds, concrete fillers. Underfloor heating systems can also be found on the shelves. "We buy all the materials needed for a job, pick them and store them here. Only when everything is complete do we start work at the customer's premises. This has the advantage that there are no waiting times and work can be carried out successively," explains the company boss.
PT Holzmanufaktur GmbH is to be located in Hall II. However, this still requires a few modifications. For example, a five-centimeter-thick, absolutely level climate-controlled floor will be installed. The precision machines will then be installed on this. Further showrooms are to be created in the main building, where the carpenters are currently active. Patrick Tschotow attaches particular importance to one point: "Everything works as it does for the customer." Interested parties can already stand under the shower, try out different lighting concepts or check the weather and news on the bathroom mirror, which is connected to the WLAN.
The Oderwitz native keeps the public up to date on all of this with his Instagram stories. He is sure to reveal his ideas for the future there at some point. After all, he would like to make even more intensive use of the huge plot of land on the industrial estate. "If we need it, another hall of the same size could be built here," he says, looking ahead. For now, Patrick Tschotow's priority is something else: PT Fliesen und Innenausbau GmbH will be celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2025. "Then there will be an XXL celebration." The company boss is already smiling as he thinks about it.
