Winning a tender to supply durable products to Crimea

Only serious men deal with load lifting products manufacture. Steel rope slings turned into a strength test for the Milyukovs’ business.

First, they were reselling products, then decided to produce them. The brothers and their father started with weaving steel slings by hand.

Stepan Milyukov, the head of ME Agrotech:
It all started quite hard and deplorably, that is, we weaved in the evenings and spent days in the office. In fact, it was a family deal, so we did it all together hand in hand.

Proper production appeared five years later: they employed a team and arranged the territory. They gradually mastered the manufacture of all types of slings, planning to open a foundry. Besides, the crisis brought its benefits to the business.

Stepan Milyukov, the head of ME Agrotech:
At the time of the crisis we actually had the most rapid development, so it was like a kick. At each step of the 2008 crisis we tried to struggle, to look for causes, problems and so on, and made efforts for further development. We also bounded forward in 2014, which lead to a turnover record in our company.

Currently, the company has its production in Crimea and it has entered the free economic zone. The head of the family is responsible for the development. The company does not miss a single opportunity to participate in grants. They have recently won a tender to supply durable products to the Republic of Crimea. Besides, there is the sewing workshop; it produces tape slings and heavy duty tow straps.

Lyudmila Voitovich, special correspondent:
These straps are used in races in the Chernozem region; they have passed a strength test on Tambov impassable roads.

Serious heavyweights could not break the tow straps at the trophy raid. The pride of the company is the installation of a cross on the bell tower of the male Monastery of Our Lady of Kazan. A 20-meter cross weighing almost 4 tons was installed using the slings. The work was performed by a helicopter crew with a group of high-altitude installation professionals. Thus, the bell tower became one of the highest in Russia. At a meeting with students, Stepan Milyukov tells how the business has developed, what hardships it had to go through and what the secret to success is.