Zsigmond Mill Inn

The Zsigmond Mill Inn, whose owner is Levente Gal and his wife Timea, has been operating for more than 18 years as a family business in the local tourism sector of Harghita County, in Madaras village.

The mission of the business is
- to familiarise the tourists with the local cultural, natural and built heritage
- to provide services and programmes where they can recognise the strengths our ancestors were helped by in the past and use/apply them in their current lives.

At the same time, it is also important for the Gal family
- to educate the tourists,
- to have tourists experience cultural, natural and geographical values,
- to offer tourists these values in the form of a complex experience - so that they can develop mentally and culturally and make them reflect on their own lives.

The motivation for starting the business was to set up a lifestyle tourism business, which ensures the necessary family income, but in the same time follows a business model that creates high value for the customer.

Circular Strategy: Regenerate

Country: Romania

Livestock and agricultural farm

As the Zsigmond Mill Inn is located in a rural area of Romania, it is rather “normal” that its owners own and operate a livestock and green farm next to it. Even though it is energy and time-consuming, and extra staff is needed to run it, it also creates greater certainty in pricing, timing and service, factors that any tourism business offering food services to their guests would envy.

Full-scale farming produces 70% of the vegetables needed for the Inn’s menus in all seasons. They also have livestock made up of chicken, trout, sheep, cow and pig which complement the grown vegetables.

Economic impact
The farm covers the needs of both the Inn’s kitchen and that of the family (the owners of the Inn), therefore its operational costs are sort of acceptable, still, when analysing the ingredients the Inn’s kitchen is using, these are more expensive than buying them from a nearby supermarket.

Social impact
The farm offers a solution to issues such as: high quality, freshness of food, nutritional value, environmental protection.

The customers of the Inn highly appreciate the quality food the Inn’s traditional kitchen prepares, they are aware of the fact that ingredients are organic, from reliable a source. They also appreciate that the owners are making an effort to grow their own food for their Inn. The owners find more meaning in knowing that the food is being appreciated.

Environmental impact
Besides the fact that all the ingredients are grown organically, composting is used and zero waste is pursued, less fuel is consumed and less emissions are released in the process of getting the ingredients to the Inn’s kitchen.

Human resources
Farming qualified staff, which is getting difficult to have as youngsters are not interested in these traditional work processes and the generation who has the knowledge and whose lifestyle was built around growing their own food is dying out.

Financial resources
The staff cost represents the financial resources needed, as everything else is being produced from own resources.

Other resources
No other resources have been mentioned.