Cartridge cases and shells made of cardboard are produced in Ushachi

Naturally, the private enterprise's products have no relation to the defense industry. The winding sleeve factory manufactures tubes – pressed cardboard blanks of various sizes. Anything can be wound onto sleeves, cartridges, spools, and drums: from fax or newsprint paper, tape, polyethylene, and twine to fiberglass, linoleum, roofing material, and carpets. Therefore, the sales market for such products is quite broad – enterprises in the construction, packaging, textile, chemical, and other sectors of the national economy. The main goal that Minsk entrepreneurs, the founders of Tvestuba LLC, set for themselves six years ago was to establish the production of an import-substituting product. For these purposes, they renovated a vacant building in Ushachi for workshops, purchased high-quality new equipment, hired a team, and started working – began accepting orders. The launch of the small business turned out to be more than successful.

A year later, they began constructing an additional production building and warehouse facilities, and also launched a second line for the production of cardboard winding sleeves. A little later, they acquired equipment for manufacturing tubes for alcohol and souvenir products. By December 2012, they had mastered the production of cardboard winding drums (barrels), and two years ago, they launched a high-speed line for the production of DTY and POY spools and cartridges used in the chemical industry.

– Modern equipment from China and Taiwan allows us to adapt to the specific customer's needs – to manufacture tubes of various internal diameters, wall thicknesses, and lengths. Cardboard cartridges can have an upper coating layer of parchment in any of the 15 available colors, and a logo can be applied to the inner side of the product. Cardboard winding drums and barrels are used for packaging, transporting, and storing powdered, bulk, solid, and paste-like products – from jam and condensed milk, medical or chemical powders to bitumen, paint, or electric cable, – says Nikolay Apyonok, Deputy Director for Production.

The products of "Tvestuba" are in demand today both in the Vitebsk region and throughout Belarus, and even beyond its borders. For example, "Polotsk-Steklovolokno" alone purchases 27 items from the assortment list of the Ushaсh winding sleeve plant, among other clients are both giants of local industry "Polimir", "Naftan", "Vitebskiye Kovry", and small private organizations "Polotskaya Bumazhnaya Kompaniya", "Galteyafarm", etc. Throughout the republic, "Tvestuba" has about 60 partners, including the largest chemical industry enterprises "Mogilevkhimvolokno" and "Grodnoсhimvolokno". The products are also in demand outside our country, periodically they are shipped to various cities of the Russian Federation, and for two and a half years the Ushaсh manufacturer has been closely cooperating with the Baltic states: mainly, cardboard winding tubes are supplied to Lithuania, although the Belarusian enterprise has enough competitors there. The optimal ratio of price, quality, delivery times and payment terms allows "Tvestuba" to gain an advantage.

– For 9 months of 2015, products worth 560 million rubles were supplied to Lithuania. In total, during this period, the production volume amounted to more than 514 thousand pieces, or 3,057 million rubles; for comparison, last year these figures were 267 thousand pieces, or 2,636 million rubles. We work only on order, for shipment, – says Oksana Shevchenko, chief accountant of OOO "Tvestuba".

The growth of economic indicators is the result not only of the expansion of production facilities and the range of manufactured products, but also of the ability to adapt to the demands of clients and modern market conditions. The example of "Tvestuba" shows that profitable production of import-substituting products can be established even in the provinces.

Natalia Kamlyova. Photos by Anton Stepanishchev. "Vitebskiye Vesti".