Having over 20 years of activity, two operating apparel and knitwear factories, the textile company “Intercentre-Lux” from Tiraspol has become since some time ago a supplier for the well-known international brands, such as Prada, Monclair, Lacoste or Burberry.

Nevertheless, the company has not been spared by the crisis generated by COVID-19 pandemics. “Last year, our entire spring collection was stuck in the storage, because the trade centers from the entire world were closed. Hence, our products did not reach the clients and the company did not make any profits,” says Boris Chiciuc, Development Director of “Intercentre-Lux”.  

This has determined the company to get reinvented and to take several measures to develop the business and to preserve the workplaces. In this context, it has called upon the assistance provided by Sweden and UNDP. Through the “Advanced cross-river capacities for trade” (AdTrade) project, the company was helped to identify new export markets and business partners. 

“In spite of notable results achieved by the company, we couldn’t have coped with the new realities all by ourselves. Thanks to the assistance provided, we analyzed our export potential and carried out an in-depth research of a promising market for us – the one from Azerbaijan. We are already negotiating with a part of our potential clients, identified with the help of the project,” says the director Chiciuc.

Also, with the project’s help, the enterprise is undergoing now a certification process according to the quality management system, which will increase its entrepreneurial success and profits.

“By obtaining the ISO certificate, we will get new opportunities, but also the confidence that the company is fully in line with international standards, from administrative perspective, but also from that of the technology applied for our finished goods, most importantly,” says the director of the enterprise.

At the same time, the company will benefit from the Sweden and UNDP assistance to create an online store adapted to current market requirements, with new functionalities and which will become a working tool with the entire database of company’s clients and an efficient tool to get promoted on the external market.

“We cannot claim that the company has totally overcome the effects of the pandemic crisis, but we certainly can say that thanks to the financial and technical support obtained until now, we succeeded to get over the crisis period, and this makes us believe that things will come back to normality and be more confident in our future,” states Boris Chiciuc, director of the enterprise. And this opinion is supported by all those 830 employees of the enterprise.

The "Intercentru-Lux" company from Tiraspol is one of the over 600 companies from both banks of the Nistru, which during the last two years have benefited from assistance provided by the AdTrade project, with the financial support of Sweden. Of these, 26 exporting companies have improved their competitiveness by adopting technological innovations and increasing their capacity for expanding their business operations abroad. The assistance provided by UNDP and development partners, such as Sweden, is a response to the recovery needs identified following an assessment undertaken by UNDP among small, micro and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from both banks of the Nistru river.

Over the next two years, UNDP will continue to support SMEs from both banks, with the financial assistance of Sweden and the United Kingdom within the “Advanced cross-River capacities for trade” (AdTrade) project, focusing on the economic empowerment of women and vulnerable groups. The assistance will help the entrepreneurs on both banks to adapt their business model to the new realities, through subsidy programs for enterprises, with a focus on improving companies' resilience to crises, increasing their access to technologies and equipment, infrastructure and markets, and supporting their financial and legal literacy. The assistance also foresees developing B2B contacts, business development and advisory services, as well as facilitation of direct access to markets.