Under the leadership of Reserve Colonel Gennady Sofyin, the Chita Factory for the repair of clothing property of the SibVO became a profitable enterprise of a wide profile

The industry of Chita and the region as a whole is a sad picture. The district of the city, which bears the name "KSK", is no exception: a huge worsted and cloth mill was closed - thousands of people were left without work, that is, virtually without means of subsistence... But just in the same microdistrict there is an island of prosperity at the present time, so to speak, in relation to a manufacturing enterprise. In any case, many people who had to communicate with them during the business trip strongly recommended visiting here in order to make sure that even in modern economic conditions it is possible not only to save production and jobs, but also to take certain steps towards prosperity.

So, the local "economic miracle" is the Chita factory for the repair of clothing property of the district, which was formed on the basis of the bath and laundry plant and the district repair shop back in 1981. Today, the plant is engaged in tailoring and repair of clothing, production of mattresses, individual tailoring of uniforms for generals, officers and ensigns, as well as laundry and dry cleaning. As they say, all the fun in one "bottle".

Until recently, they mainly sewed and repaired military products and washed clothes for military units. But time has made adjustments to the production process. Due to, to put it mildly, insufficient funding under the budget items of the Ministry of Defense, the plant began to produce consumer goods, produce laundry and dry cleaning to civilian organizations and the population. Special demand, as it turned out, are working clothes, jackets, mittens, tops, mattresses, pillows, bed linen. These products are easily used for offsetting payments for utilities and electricity, closing local taxes. It is also very willingly bought by the Chinese, whose number in the region is increasing literally day by day.

By the way, prices for all products are relatively low. For example, a covered fur jacket costs 1200 domestic rubles, a work suit - 100, mittens - 9, a good camouflage uniform suit-375 rubles. The cost of production, of course, is also low. You may ask, at the expense of what? Due to the purchase of cheap raw materials by barter, the use of various types of waste-fallout from the main cutting, cotton rags for the production of mattresses...

As for the price of laundry and dry cleaning, here it is 30 percent lower than in the city, and therefore, despite the remoteness, people use the services of the plant.

The reduction in the size of the Armed Forces, the transition to a new form of clothing led to the fact that a lot of army fabrics were written off, for example, sea-green and overcoat. It is used to make hospital gowns and suits, as well as army winter mittens. The volume of such products in monetary terms, for example, in 1998 amounted to more than 2.2 million rubles out of a total of 5.5 million rubles.

The actual collapse of the local voentorg system of individual tailoring led to the fact that only the plant preserved a workshop for the manufacture of individual uniforms. It should be noted that the quality of the final product is excellent. And although uniforms are sewn on loan, the company did not become unprofitable for the district.

The fact that the plant has become profitable is largely due to its head, Reserve Colonel Gennady Sofyin, who recently served as the head of the food service of the Trans-Baikal Military District. Here is what Gennady Konstantinovich himself told about the company, the achievements and problems of the team.

- The plant currently employs 105 people, 81% of them are women, 20% are single mothers, so as a director, I have to worry not only about the development of production, but also, first of all, about timely payment of wages. You know how difficult it is to live now, and if single mothers and those with many children do not pay money on time, then, of course, it will be, as they say, a pipe. Employees of the plant, if we are talking about wages, receive an average of 1,350 rubles a month. The financial situation is certainly tense. We now need to pay about 600 thousand rubles of debts on all federal taxes. We will pay off some of them with the help of the district's clothing service. Do the rest yourself. It helps that we pay off almost all local debts with consumer goods. But in the end, the main thing is that we still manage to develop production; we leave a certain share of funds for this. So, for example, we have repaired some of the premises and made some repairs to the equipment. There are specific plans to expand the product range. Now we, for example, produce bedding: mattresses, pillows, sheets, pillowcases. We also decided to establish the production of wooden beds in order to sell a complete set. All this is in high demand.

Of course, at least 80 percent of the products produced go to the district troops. In this regard, I would like to raise the following question through Orientir. The head of the Central Clothing Department came here once, to the district. As it turned out, he understands that industrial plants like ours still need to be supported. But what happens in practice? A STC, for example, arranges bidding for placing orders. And, as a rule, all finished products are ordered in the end in the center of Russia - after all, there it is, of course, cheaper. And then, for example, the same sheets still need to be taken to Siberia and Transbaikalia. Wouldn't it be better to give us cloth, and we would make them locally and supply them to the troops? We also need to be helped to develop. Since we exist in the system of the Ministry of Defense, it means that we need to be engaged. And with this, to be honest, the situation is not important.

However, it is not in the nature of Gennady Sofin to complain. His extensive service experience helps him overcome problems to a large extent. He started out as the head of the food and clothing service of the battalion, so he knows the same supply standards for the clothing service and so on thoroughly from his lieutenant's time. Then, by the nature of his service, he was engaged in food security issues. He served in Germany and studied at the academy. He served in the ZabVO for 17 years. At the district headquarters, he passed the official steps from a senior audit officer to the head of the food service.

When I retired to the reserve and became a director at the plant, the system turned out to be familiar-supply. However, as Gennady Konstantinovich admitted, there were concerns: after all, a self-supporting independent enterprise, you need to know accounting well, understand the economy... To finally dispel concerns, he entered and is studying in absentia at the Moscow Institute of Economics and Statistics. Next year, he must defend his diploma in the specialty "manager of small and medium-sized businesses".

As we walked through the company's workshops, we asked the people who worked here the same question: what if Sofyin wasn't the director? Many people nodded eloquently in the direction of the" dead " worsted and cloth mill. This was the closest example...

FROM THE EDITORIAL OFFICE. In the Siberian Military District, a visiting editorial board of the Orientir magazine, consisting of Colonels Viktor Saidakov and Vladimir Shishkin, Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Sidorov and Captain of the 3rd rank Mikhail Sevastyanov, worked. Participants of the field editorial office are grateful to the press service of the SibVO headed by Colonel Valery Shcheblanin for their assistance in organizing the work.