JUMP STARTING ARMENIA'S INDUSTRY: ONE FACTORY AT A TIME

by David Zenian


Yerevan -- The "Made in Armenia" label will soon appear in retail stores across the United States and Armenian technology will expand to India thanks to two women determined to jump-start the garment industry -- from the factory floor up.

The first 20,000 men's windbreakers are already on their way to stores in California, and the consignment will soon be followed by thousands of raincoats and children's apparel -- the latest in the "only-for-export" products of Yerevan's mostly government-owned Garun garment factory.

The workmanship is up to western standards, and so are the designs and materials -- down to the last thread.

Across town, engineers at the "Tosp" factory are making last minute preparations to move some machinery to India for a joint venture which will use Indian cotton and Armenian technology to manufacture undergarments, T-shirts and other sportswear.

"Tosp", a "full-circle" facility where cotton thread is weaved and dyed before being sent up to the manufacturing floors, is an open stock company which is 70 per cent owned by its workers and staff while the remaining 30 percent is in the public domain.

"Garun", a state-of-the-art sewing facility, is still government-owned, but will soon be privatized.

Despite the different ownerships, factory managers Ms. Rimma Bekirska and Ms. Gohar Yenokian are proving that incentives, sound management, marketing and healthy work ethics are the keys to success.

A dynamic woman in her mid-50's, Ms. Yenokian is the general director of "Garun" which employs 400 workers, mainly women who are often the primary bread-earners in their families.

Under Ms. Yenokian, "Garun" has filled major contracts from a Dutch company and is now producing windbreakers and other items under contract for a joint U.S.-Russian consortium based in St. Petersburg.

"The objective is to guarantee employment for our workers in the absence of a strong local consumer market. Everything we manufacture here is for export which generates a continued income for us," she said during a tour of the facility.

"We are learning to deal with deadlines and quality control. Our product has to be perfect, or else we will lose business. We have to remain competitive, because if we fail, business goes somewhere else," she said.

The concept is new for Armenia which once filled "contracts" dictated by Moscow -- part of barter arrangements under which each Soviet Republic had a specific role in the larger production cycle.

Today, factories in Armenia can only survive if they produce, and with Ms. Yenokian at the helm of "Garun", production is climbing.

Well aware of the limitations of the local market and the shortage of raw materials, Ms. Yenokian began looking outside Armenia's borders a few years ago.

"We have the technology and the skilled work force, and both of these are precious assets," she said giving Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore as examples where affordable labor has pumped millions of dollars into their local economies.

Ms. Yenokian's first contract came from Holland and others have since followed from Amerex International, a U.S.-Russian joint venture based in New York and St. Petersburg.

Part of the Amerex contract has already been filled and more is in progress. "Garun" has the work orders and the employees are happy.

In fact, Ms. Yenokian is looking for additional staff as more orders roll in.

Elsewhere in Yerevan, Ms. Rimma Bekirska, President of "Tosp", an open stock share holding company which manufactures cotton wear, is also making its way into the "world" market -- India and the republics of the former Soviet Union.

Gone private a little more than one year ago, the 870 workers make an average of 40 dollars a month -- nearly twice as much as soon to be privatized "Garun."

This is possible because of a growing market in Russia where high-quality cotton goods are in great demand. And just as a "private company in the West", "Tosp" recently made a large donation to the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra during a fund-raising campaign organized by the American Embassy in Yerevan.

"We need the PR as much as we need export markets," Ms. Bekirska said. "We were also involved in the natural gas barter with Turkmenia for which we are going to be compensated by the Armenian government," she said.

But business could be better and production much more than the current level of 600,000 units of cotton underwear per year. The same factory used to produce millions of units a year before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

"We have the capability to produce more, but we have to establish better markets, and that's why we are looking at India," she said.

Given the fact that most of the raw cotton is Indian, and so are the potentials for marketing, Ms. Bekirska and other shareholders have decided to ship some of the unused machinery to India -- the primary source of the raw material.

"We are creating an Armenian-Indian joint venture in India to manufacture some of our products there for that and other nearby markets. Labor is cheap in India and so is the raw cotton ... the combination will bring a lot of revenue for us," she said.

Markets are the key to growth, and both "Garun" and "Tosp" -- under the leadership of two highly energetic, active, motivated and business-minded women, are opening new horizons every day.

Production is on the rise in both facilities, and so is the quality of their products -- made in Armenia with pride and hard work.