ZF Invest in Romania! The dairy producer Artesana wants over 6 million euros…

♦ The turnover amounted to 7.5 million euros in 2023, from 5 million euros in 2022 ♦ The target for 2024 is 12-13 million euros ♦ Cheeses represent less than 10% of Artesana’s business.

The dairy producer Artesana wants to obtain over 6 million euros through the Just Transition Program to transform the old factory in Tecuci, Galati county, into a new cheese factory, explained Daniel Donici, co-founder of Artesana, in the ZF Investiți în România show !, made in partnership with CEC Bank.

“We are preparing a new project for the cheese factory, we realized that we need bigger, more efficient equipment to make new types of cheese in addition to the ones we already have in our range. We are looking at European funds. It is this Just Transition program that is for our area and for other disadvantaged areas”.

The Just Transition Mechanism is dedicated to supporting areas where economic capacities are closing or transforming due to the transition to a greener economy.

This mechanism also has a program through which SMEs from Galati, Gorj, Hunedoara, Dolj, Prahova and Mureş can access funds totaling 775 million euros. The call was opened in December 2023 and has been extended several times, with the deadline now on May 20.

“The criteria there are a bit strange, since the number of employees takes into account the value of the project, the higher it is, the more you have to hire. For every 175,000 euros you must have an employee. We have already reached over 6 million euros just for equipment”.

In the case of Artesana, 6 million euros means more than 30 employees, and the entrepreneurs do not understand exactly how they will manage to offer new jobs even to the people laid off during the transition.

“It’s very good that there are programs that help people reintegrate into the labor market. (…) The problem is that this aspect is not taken into account, we are 80 km from Galati, where the steel plant is. Where can we find at least 10 employees who were at the combine and who live in our area or are willing to move? Where do you find people who have worked all their lives in metal to come and work in cheese?”.

In the event that this project will not fall under the Just Transition Program, Artesana is also looking at other programs or methods to scale cheese production.

“We are also looking at other programs or making the investment along the way, less equipment. We still have in the factory the old equipment from 12 years ago, but which do not meet our needs. We need different equipment”.

The company founded by Daniel and Alina Donici started with a factory in Tecuci, Galati county, and in 2023 inaugurated the second factory, right next to the first, after total investments of 6 million euros. The entire production from the old factory was moved to the new factory, initially occupying 20-25% of the capacity. Now the new factory is at 35%.

The old factory was preserved for the production of cheeses, an activity that Artesana has been carrying out for several years, but has done so in a limited way until now.

“We made a small investment in the old cheese factory, we removed the acidophilus packaging line, we did some re-compartmentalization, we changed the floor, we closed for 3 weeks to make the investment to somehow prepare the ground to do more and better”.

Today, cheeses represent less than 10% of Artesana’s sales, and the products are listed both in modern retail and on online channels. However, the products ended up listed in “specialties”, a shelf where not so many consumers reach.

“Because they are not telemea or cascaval or classic Romanian cheese, they end up as specialties. We wanted to make different products, but not everyone is curious to see the specialty shelf”.

The dairy producer Artesana ended 2023 with business of almost 7.5 million euros, from 5 million euros in 2022, and the target for 2024 is 12-13 million euros.

“Now we have some growing pains because we grew from 5 to 7.5 million euros and in 2024 we aim for 12-13 million euros. That’s why we need a middle management team to take over this operational part, here we have such suffering. (…) We also want to invest in a better ERP and we are looking at new sales channels”.