Page 163 - Romania 100

Roxar
How to turn a crisis into an opportunity
Roxar Prod Com, known today as ‘Marcel’s Dairy’, was established at the
end of 1997 in the village Cerneşti in Maramureş, out of a need of the livestock farmers in the surrounding areas, say the founders of the company. At that time, in that area, milk was collected by two well-known processing factories which, failed to meet the farmers’ financial expectations.
Farmers were seriously affected, including the Gârda family, which turned a crisis situation into an opportunity.
“After my husband’s dismissal from the Suior mine, a movement towards the free market was our first step. With the first tranche of compensatory salaries, we decided to open a small milk processing unit in the garage
the company administrator. The entire family is working on this ambitious project - Liliana and Marcel, the three children and, last but not least, the grandmother.
of the house that was under construction at that time. The money received from the mine was enough for the setting up of the company and for a small advance for a tank, a vat and a sour cream machine. For
the room finishing and other expenses to start the business we took a bank loan. This is how our story started, as a family business”, recalls Liliana Gârda,
“On the first day we processed 138 litres of milk. After that we started
163