Lukashists Push One Of Largest, Oldest Enterprises In Belarus Over Edge

The factory has no money, no equipment, not even its own website.

For 30 years, the March 8 factory in Homel has turned from a modern factory into a hopeless enterprise.

No money, no equipment, not even a website. The Flagstaff publication writes how one of the oldest and largest enterprises in the light industry of Belarus was pushed over the edge.

At the dawn of sovereignty, the March 8 factory was the hallmark of Homel's light industry. The enterprise, which was founded in 1926, underwent a large-scale reconstruction just before the collapse of the USSR. The factory was equipped with modern equipment of leading Japanese, Italian, German, Swiss companies. This allowed the production of high-quality and modern products from cotton, wool, synthetic threads and their mixtures. In 1991, the number of employees reached 4,500 people, the production of knitwear amounted to 23 million pieces, hosiery — 27 million pairs.

The March 8 factory was one of the most attractive assets for privatization in Homel. However, this never happened. In 1997, the enterprise was transformed into an open joint stock company, but 88.9% of the shares remained in the hands of the state.

Since then, the business has slowly declined. The burden of financial problems has been accumulating every year and by 2020 has become unbearable. Some sort of a leapfrog began at the director post. However, none of them could radically influence the situation. Losses grew every year, and the workshops of the enterprise turned into a film set for a horror movie. The enterprise does not even have money to host a corporate website on the Internet.

At the end of April, the enterprise published the results of its activities for 2021 on the Unified Financial Portal, from which it became clear that the factory had gone bankrupt. Expenses exceeded revenues by one and a half times, as a result of which the OJSC came up with a 10.3 million rubles loss. The factory's debts exceeded the value of the property by 1 million rubles. The number of employees for the year decreased by 20%, amounting to only 804 people. This is 5.5 times less than in 1991.

The auditor agrees that for March 8 JSC it is time to think about the beginning of the bankruptcy procedure. The enterprise has not done this yet, but keeping in mind the state of the factory workshops, a reasonable question arises: is it worth it to revive the March 8 JSC at all?