A small private company established last year became specialised in manufacturing carved furniture for churches. The employees make altar doors, pews and candlesticks.
After 23 years of working as a carpenter with a Hunedoara-based arts and crafts manufactory, Grigore Rosca moved to SC Rempes Deva, but two and a half years later, he was laid off. As he could not sit around and do nothing after a lifetime of work, he thought he might start his own business.
One year after making this step, Rosca admits that it was harder than expected, but he still intends to develop the business.
Grigore Rosca opened his firm in 2000 and named it SC Grigore SRL, as his inspiration was scarce when he set up this company. He rented the former carpentry workshop from Rempes and hired five employees from Hunedoara, of which three were unemployed.
After putting together a team, he started his carpentry and joinery activity, always searching for orders. The turning point was the order for Deva-based Saint Basil church, which needed new altar doors, pews and an entrance door.
Grigore Rosca also rented some equipment that was absolutely necessary and, with the help of hundreds of tools he had gathered during a lifetime, he started manufacturing furniture, working as hard as his employees.
They made furniture for bedrooms, kitchen, chairs, everything that had been ordered and that could bring money to the company.
The main order, for Saint Basil Church, is ongoing, as 25 chairs, two altar doors and glasses for the candles, all of them adorned with carved motifs, have already been delivered. Some 50 chairs and the church’s entrance door are to be finished. The order is worth 100 million lei.
Grigore Rosca plans to get a loan of 120 million lei from the Labour Department as soon as possible. He will use the money to buy the space where he is currently working and to buy some equipment and a van in order to make the transport easier.
He brings wood from warehouses located in Hunedoara, Hasdau or Abrud, where he finds oak, beech, cherry wood and other essences he needs. He buys dried wood, as he doesn’t have ovens to dry it in the workshop.
Rosca this year intends to hire several unemployed people, maybe high-school graduates, to teach them this trade. He also estimates to get 150 million lei in profit.
Grigore Rosca, who spends a lot of time with his employees, thinks that he should make furniture in small series and sell it in specialised stores, in order to face the competition.
“We are going to sell furniture at affordable prices, as I want the money to circulate as much as possible. I have to gain the clients’ trust and subsequently, I want to train my employees, who will be hired if they pass rather difficult work tests,” Rosca says.
After the first carved objects for Saint Vasile Church were manufactured, the company owned by Grigore Rosca also got orders from the churches in Branisca and Micro 15 Deva.