INTERES PUBLIC
Reporter REGIO: episode 4
REGIO - an engine for small business
Success stories, possible with the support of Regio Nord-Est 2014-2020
Very passionate about cars, with studies in the food industry, she wears her high heels with femininity in a men`s world. Larisa Corniciuc is a strong woman who turned her passion into a business. She opened, in 2021, in Botoșani City, a workshop for the production of car parts and engine repairs with the support of European funds and hopes that one day, she will learn to repair with her own hands the engines. At 33 years old, a mother of two children, she is a very active person and she strongly believes that everything in life is learned, no matter how difficult it may be.
Moto Dalv achieved, through the Regional Operational Program 2014-2020, 12 pieces of high-performance equipment, necessary for a car workshop, worth 250k euros. The company is at the beginning of the road, but Larisa considers that without the help of European funds it would never have managed to fulfill this dream and offer unique services in Botoșani City with some state-of-the-art equipment.
From the multinational to her workshop
Larisa’s passion for cars comes from childhood, being surrounded by a brother and a father passionate about this field. And since nothing is accidental in life, although she had studied in the food industry, 8 years ago, she was hired by a multinational company where she sold car parts. She is still grateful to the director who hired her because he trusted her and saw a woman who could do more in her. „He gave me a lot of courage. When a man trusts you in such a masculine field, then it makes you feel very good. I remember that the European director of the company came here and after a meeting, he said to the local manager: «This girl has to do more! She has to go to meet the client, talk about car parts and you have to teach her about car parts! », Larisa remembers. She admits that it took her a while to learn the technical part, but it helped that she was curious and asked many questions.
Then, after 4 years of multinational, she decided it was time to open an auto parts store on her own. And because she is a very ambitious person, she wanted more. She wanted something that did not exist in Botoșani City: a workshop dedicated to engines and car parts. She looked for information, studied the open calls from different European programs, and then, with the help of a consultant, she submitted a project within the ROP 2014-2020, Axis 2-Support for micro-enterprises, entitled “Establishment of spare parts production unit for vehicles and engines ”. „I was scared that I wouldn’t know. But I trusted myself and realized that I could learn anything. After making the business plan, I said that there are two possibilities: either to access European funds, or on our own, with the help of the bank, but in the current conditions I don’t think we could have done that. And then I successfully accessed European funds. I said it was a lottery, we had no way of knowing if we would win or not”.
12 types of equipment achieved through ROP 2014-2020
Through the project, she achieved 12 high-performance, high-precision workshop equipment. For connoisseurs, these are crankshaft grinding machines, cylinder head plan grinders, connecting rod boring, honing, valve seat boring, crack testing, and a hydraulic press. Then she tried to find people willing to work with it. But she didn’t find any. Neither local nor regional. So she proposed to the team that came from Turkey to make the equipment settings to … stay in Romania and work with it. Larisa now has in her team two people of Turkish nationality, with experience in the field, and two apprentice Romanian employees. „We tried to find people to work with, here in Romania. I looked for qualified people in metalworking, but I did not find any, it was very difficult. For example, whoever is a lathe professional has a lathe at home and is not looking to be hired. The company from which I took the equipment, by auction, is Romanian, but the equipment is Turkish. It also helped us find the right people. Someone had to help us set them up so they sent a team from there. We talked and they decided to stay”. Now, Larisa explains what needs to be done or repaired in English, with specific terms, and she is also learning Turkish.
A broken engine does not mean junk
Moto Dalv is the only workshop in Botosani City focused on this type of engine repairs and car parts production and because it is at the beginning of the road, Larisa relies heavily on recommendations. Although she could open a car service department, she did not. „Then the services would have considered me a competitor, and I don’t want that, I want to work with everyone. So, now, anyone in Botosani City recommends me. Actually, we recommend each other. If you do a good job, they recommend you. Even if a crack in the engine for a lot of people can mean scrap metal, people who care about their cars, choose to repair the engine”, says the young woman. Even she did that.
Plans for the future? Development also through European funds
The young entrepreneur does not like to sit in the office and says that she would get bored just telling someone what to do. „I want to work with my colleagues, side by side, I like that. I don’t just sit at the office, I go to clients. Sometimes I want to learn to repair engines by myself, but all of a sudden I’m afraid I won’t ruin anything there. I know the operations, I see them, I know their order, but how it is set … no. Yet. I am constantly learning ”. Asked about plans, Larisa Corniciuc says that she would like to expand and buy more high-performance equipment with European funding. She waits to see what calls are opened and which is the one for her. She is in continuous research, she keeps informed about all the opportunities that appear and she knows that only with the support of European funds she could fulfill her dream of expanding her business.
Reporter REGIO is a new North-East RDA initiative, which focuses on promoting the successful projects of our beneficiaries, projects that have managed to stand out by bringing added value and impact to the community. At a time when negative news predominates, we offer you beautiful but true stories for reading, meant to strengthen the belief that „it is possible”! Be part of the story!
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Cristina and Alexandru are 100% present in their business. Filter all stages, from ideas to feedback. But at the same time, they kept their simplicity and work side by side. Vali Pintilescu says about the two spouses, with admiration, that they are atypical entrepreneurs. „They are very involved in this work, more than hundreds of entrepreneurs I know. When you see that the business is on an upward trend, you let it grow. But they are still here, working every day and I think that could be the secret ingredient, the recipe for success „.
Cătălin and Oana were at that point in their lives without too many financial possibilities, with a small child and a recent bank loan for an apartment. Their little girl was sleeping on a mattress they were not very happy with, so they decided to put a woolen „grandmother’s” blanket on top. The inconvenience was that the blanket was very slippery. So, they decided to take it to a local tailor shop to put cotton on it. It turned out so good and the baby was sleeping so well that they decided to make another blanket. In the meantime, the local tailor shop had closed due to a lack of orders. Then, Cătălin decided to make one himself, what could be so difficult?
He found an UK entrepreneur online who wanted to start a business, but didn’t want much volume and needed flexibility. He asked for some samples, he liked it and offered them a collaboration. When they saw that the partnership was materializing, Oana and Cătălin looked for a stable wool supplier and took care of all the necessary documents for export. They set up SANODOR SRL, they entered the list of exporters, so that when they sent the first order, on Good Friday in 2014, all the documents were ready. „Together with our collaborator from Great Britain, we have developed our products a lot in a year, we have brought them to a quality level so that there was no difference between our products and those on the UK market. In the UK the world is very open to wool products, there are many NGOs, there is a wool culture. Even Prince Charles has an NGO called The Campaign for Wool, which has grown worldwide. The wool market is encouraged from sheep breeding to the store that sells the final product, blankets, clothing, quilts „, says Oana.
The Tatu couple says they would apply again to a European-funded project. „European funds are extremely useful. Whoever gave up or did not apply was either afraid or unprepared. There is a bunch of paper to be made, indeed, but the final goal matters. We really needed that equipment, it was our only chance and we could only get it with European funds „, confesses Oana. Cătălin says that “many good businesses do not have the ability and capacity to think a project with EU funding. They could scale the business very easily by accessing the funds. They are very good family business, with very good quality products, but which are in a latent state of development. These businesses need to be identified and attracted to European funds„.
Pursuing the efforts to improve the quality of the Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialisation of the North-East Region, North-East RDA revised the Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialisation of the North-East Region, taking into account the recommendations resulting from the analysis carried out by the experts of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of European Commission at the request of the Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration, within the Technical Assistance Program “RIS3 in Lagging Regions, Phase II”, funded by European Commission through DG Regio.
The North-East Regional Development Agency launches the second call of the Research Results Development Program (RVP 2.0) to identify research projects with high commercial potential in the North-East Region and to support related project teams to strengthen knowledge and skills to advance their own project to a higher level of technological training (TRL).
