"Manufactura" has created its own brands for the Romanian market: Grizley Montana and Suporter

Cornelia Angelescu

The company and the factory "Manufactura" of Turnu Măgurele were born following a bet by Italian entrepreneur Nazzareno Marinangeli. He said: "Lots of people told me I"d never succeed in building a Phare program project here. Together with an Italian colleague and two Romanian ladies I have proven the opposite. We drafted the documentation, we made the project and now the company has assets worth EUR 2 million: cutting edge equipment installed in a factory built from scratch through the Phare program".

Nazzareno Marinangeli regrets the fact that the factory now only has 350 workers, instead of the 650 it used to have in 2006 and that part of the equipment is currently inactive. The reasons are mostly the decline of the apparel industry, in Romania, as well in the countries which are the main markets of the companies that the Turnu Măgurele based company is working for: "Dolce&Gabbana", "Pinko", "Valentino", "Marella", "Petritia Pepe", "Pianura Studio".

Nazzareno Marinangeli says: "I hope that things will improve in 2009 and that we succeed in maintaining our turnover around last year"s EUR 4 million value. And while this year may be harder, I estimate that 2010 will be better. In fact, in 2010 we want to increase from 10% to 30% the volume of products designed by us and sold under our own brand".

Even though the factory initially worked in outsourcing, Nazzareno Marinangeli changed the strategy in the last two years. The first step has already been taken: the ten experts of the company, who create and launch the apparel models for the domestic market, now do design work for several of the abovementioned companies, whereas they would previously only be involved in the production part. The second step consists of selling 10% of the company"s production domestically, - and increase the quota to 30% by 2010, as well as begin selling the company"s products abroad. "Manufactura" will sell its products under the brand Grizley Montana, targeted at women. Next year, the company will also launch a sportswear brand called Suporter, targeted mostly at men.

Iulia Darie, the company"s sales manager, said: "We import most of our materials from France, Italy and Turkey. We have over 600 models that we sell in our stores - . We have several stores open under that name in Turnu Măgurele, Alexandria, and we have recently opened a new one in Bucharest. We want to create buzz on the market, by launching something new every day".

Aside from apparel production (polos, t-shirts, jumpers, dresses, anoraks, pants, skirts, tracksuits etc.), the company runs its own services of laundry and dyeing, ironing, embroidery, graphics and transport.