Kantinieku parish company SIA “Anel” – for sweetening life
All of us come from childhood and have always kept memories of the delicious homes, biscuits, and other delicacy. What a company working in Rezekne is very similar to today. SIA “Anēl” started to operate in 1995 when a shop was opened at the centre of Rezekne Municipality IN the centre of the parish of Kantinieku, where local residents were able to purchase food and essential industrial goods. The company's owner Yelena Shilova organized the shop itself. She acknowledges that the day was intense – to plan the assortment and quantity of goods, to search for suppliers, to ensure that the purchaser has access to fresh food, accountants and the like.
Suppliers were contracted to supply goods and mostly suppliers brought goods to the store, but they had to go after the confectionery themselves to Rēzekne, who would be around 30 km per journey. This situation continued for more than a year, but when assessing the high costs of procuring confectionery, the manager of the store had the idea of making his bakery. Yelena recalls the beginning of the implementation of this intention: “we applied for a project for attracting European money, but no aid was granted. Then i started to do what it seemed right. I invested my money, bought relatively cheap kitchen equipment for the production of confectionery products – mixer, dough, oven and other equipment. With family support, we repaired the premises next to the store. Interestingly, the village people were convinced that we would simply expand the shop. It never occurred to anyone that we cooked our biscuits and pies. When we opened the confectionery, everyone had a great surprise and a huge interest in coming and buying our products. As the first confectionery products,“ ponchiki ”was offered to buyers with jams and curds and pizza. There was so much demand that“ ponchikus ”bought more hot but 200 grams of pizza sold even 60 – 70 pieces per day, and the current demand for pizza is only 4 – 6 pieces per day.”
When asked about whether it would be different from today's view, Yelena does not dare say that everything was worth it, not to do anything otherwise, and, now, with a sense of relief, remembers the first rejected project: “if the project was to be supported, our costs would have been significantly higher, because it was intended to buy quite expensive kitchen equipment, and who knows how long it should be to pay the credit that i had planned to take for the project”.
Currently, SIA “Anel” employs 5 employees, from whom Valentina Shilova and Maria Laizane have been working since the opening of the confectionery in 2007. With great thanks, Yelena remembers the support received at the very beginning by Inara Šindariova, head of the National Agency for Employment, who helped to attract labour through EU employment promotion programmes.
By gradually developing, as well as objectively assessing the resources and future prospects of the company, it became clear that the attraction of European funding would be very important when planning economic activities and increasing turnover. Despite the first negative experience in the field of projects, Yelena, with the help of his daughter, began to write a new project application for rural support in the measure “aid for the creation and development of enterprises (including the diversification of non-agricultural activities)”. However, successful completion of the project application form succeeded as far as the form money section had not to be completed, but further work stopped. What to do? Assistance was sought TO SIA “Latvian Centre for Rural Consultation and Education” (LLCC) in the Rēzekne Bureau, where, thanks to the Economy Specialist Group Indrichan, the project was fully prepared and submitted to the Rural Support Service. A short time later, a decision was taken to support the project. The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) has bought a biscuit packing facility and a more powerful furnace. In collaboration with THE LLCC Rēzekne Office in 2012, SIA “Anēl” carried out another project by purchasing a modern, more powerful rotation furnace, which allowed the successful expansion of the production of biscuits, and now the confectionery has a wide range of 22 biscuits and 6 pie types, various cakes, bacon pies, pizza, cakes.
The recipes used, the housewife of confectionery, say, with some pride, that they are mostly taken from the People, that is, the women themselves tell them what delicious cepa is their grandmother, aunts and the like. After the suggested recipes are tried, they will be tasted on the spot if something seems not to be good – the recipe is adapted to the desired flavour properties so that the best option reaches the buyer. One of the longest recipes to date has been the “Napoleon” cake, whose most outstanding final result was a whole year. The one who has once prolonged this cake will unambiguously want more and more, not only because it is fantastic, but also because, like all other SIA “Anel” confectionery products, normal raw materials have been used there. For example, if eggs or milk are required after a prescription, the eggs or milk will also be used instead of any mysterious powder, mixtures, food additives or semi-finished products.
Thinking about further developments, the company's owner Yelena would like to start producing organic confectionery products. However, the main impediment to the implementation of this idea is due to the lack of organic raw materials in the market. If organic milk or flour is available, the largest problem is the provision of organic eggs. Yelena would be pleased if, reading this article, the producers of organic eggs would have withdrawn and would be willing to cooperate (the autopsy note: call Yelen via telephone 29470764).
Confectionery products can be purchased on location in the Rēzekne municipality IN THE parish OF Kantinieku, but the largest company operates according to customer orders. It is also about creating a company website so that customers have a more convenient overview of the offer and provide more convenient order-making.
Dina Butler,
SIA “Latvian Rural Consultation and Education Centre”
Rēzekne Rural Development Consultant