FINAL REPORT - USAID Macedonia

Implementation of Supply Chain Management Program in Ruen IT
In 2011, MCP designed and delivered a practical educational
program for business executives in supply chain management in
an effort to enhance competitiveness by adopting practices that
reduce costs while increasing sales, efficiency and customer
service. The program was provided through four modules and
eight working days on-site at Ruen IT’s facilities in Kocani and
involved 20 representatives from Ruen, Rade Koncar-
Kontaktori I Relei, Laminati- Prilep, TE-TE Plast, Zavar and
Progres Komerc. As part of the training, participants developed
project to reduce inventories, lead times and capital assets
utilized to serve customers in their own companies, allowing
them to permanently reduce their product cost structure, as well
as increase profitability through product differentiation,
customer responsiveness, modularization and supplier
collaboration. If implemented, the ideas presented by the
“The supply chain management training
organized by USAID Competitiveness Project
was an outstanding program in terms of content
and organization. It gave us valuable insights of
our company’s operations looking at them from
a higher level and another perspective. We got
many ideas in terms of improvement plans, and
we think there will be enough possibilities to
implement them, thus creating higher sales
while reducing costs of production and
operations.”
Irina Gapik
Marketing and Communications, RUEN IT
participants would result in average cost reduction of 20 percent, increase of sales and profit by 20 percent and
25 percent respectively, reduced inventory of finished goods by 10 percent, and 20 percent increase in
productivity.
Design for upgraded CIRKO e-library and web portal
MCP assisted CIRKO to create a web-based library for the tool-and-die industry, designed to help 75 member
companies (primarily SMEs) provide faster and more accurate responses to potential buyers’ RFQs. As a result,
a number of companies were able to provide quick and high-quality responses to potential customers’ requests,
thus achieving tool exports of more than 250,000 euros to France, Sweden, Germany, and Russia. In addition,
CIRKO’s Slovenian counterpart, TECOS, used the e-library to promote Macedonian companies in Slovenia and
to match Slovenian companies with Macedonian counterparts.
Activities in Other sub-sectors
Market Linkages in the Furniture sector
Although small, Macedonia’s furniture industry has high growth
potential. MCP market research revealed that Macedonian furniture
producers compete well in domestic and regional markets, with
Greece and Kosovo in particular, followed by Serbia, Slovenia, and
Croatia. During the first half of the project, MCP worked with the
Wood Processing Cluster, Ministry of Economy, and other partners
to help furniture manufacturers carry out joint market linkage
activities targeting regional buyers and retailers. Activities included
subsidizing the costs of sales agents and engaging an
aggregator/joint who could represent and market products from
multiple companies at one time, targeting the Balkan region, which Macedonian exhibitor at trade fair
resulted in $100,000 in new sales. MCP also supported a the first
International Wood Industry Conference in Macedonia during the Skopje Furniture Fair in March 2010, along
with a B2B event with companies from Macedonia, Slovenia, and Kosovo.
Participation of Demastil at Nurnberg Toy Fair 2010 and 2011
Demastil, located in Kriva Palanka, is the only producer of children’s toy balls and professional balls in the
Balkan region. Their main market is children’s balls made of PVC, which they export globally. MCP supported
Demastil’s participation at the Spielwarenmesse International Toy Fair in Nurnberg, Germany in 2010 and 2011.
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