The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) operates the Women in Business programme for several years now, providing financial and consulting support to women-led small and medium enterprises.

Armenian female entrepreneurs also receive help from the European Union and Swedish Government along with women in 26 countries where the programme is applied. Banks.am presents success stories of two beneficiaries of the Women in Business programme.

Nutritionist Vardanush Petrosyan opened the café Ingredient in 2014 to promote the idea of healthy food. The menu is very different from those in other cafés: Ingredient doesn’t use artificial additives, fried products, white flour, sugar, and processed food.

Participation in EBRD’s course for women entrepreneurs in 2015 gave Vardanush Petrosyan new business skills and she prepared a plan to advance her newly-founded café.

“We were offered an IT consultation in the end of the course. After that, we decided to make a website with co-financing of EUR 5000 from EBRD. We created ingredient.am, where you can find the café menu and our recommendations for healthy nutrition, order our food online,” Vardanush Petrosyan said.

According to her, the number of visitors and online orders increased after they launched the website. Last year Vardanush Petrosyan applied for another co-financed initiative with EBRD, this time to improve management of human and financial resources at the café.

Sisters Inga and Elen Manukyan are also among the women entrepreneurs who applied for EBRD’s help to develop their business. In 2014, Inga and Elen founded a clothing production named LOOM Weaving. Inga designs the clothes and oversees the production, while Elen deals with organizational issues and management.

The sisters mostly focus on design and production of woolen clothes for women and men. Women in Business programme was a welcome supporter for the small business in 2015.

“We took the course for female entrepreneurs. Once we completed it, we created LOOM Weaving’s brand, first catalog, and professional photo album with con-financing from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and our sales increased,” said clothing designer Inga Manukyan.

Now they sell their production at the shop 5 Concept that features five Armenian clothing producers.

The Manukyan sisters told that their cooperation with EBRD didn’t end with the co-financed brand. They also requested co-financing for software for sales and production management.

You can read about Women in Business programme in more detail here.

Suren Stepanyan
Photos by Grigor Yepremyan