The village of Varnița was at the heart of the 1992 Transnistrian War, when the Moldovan armed forces clashed with the forces of the separatist Transnistria region, which ultimately led to the creation of the self-proclaimed „Prednistrovian Moldovan Republic”.

After the hostilities ended, Varnița remained under the administration of Moldova’s central authorities, while the adjacent city of Bender (also known as Tighina) and other nearby areas remained under the control of the de-facto authorities of the Transnistria region. From a bird view, Bender and its suburb Varnița look like parts of the same city – streets blend into one another, and houses line the same roads. But on the ground, life is anything but ordinary. Going to the market, visiting friends, or taking a child to school can mean carrying a passport, waiting at checkpoints, and constantly adjusting to whichever rules happen to apply on the specific site that a person is visiting.

Young people growing up in the area have learned to navigate these arrangements, becoming resilient, flexible, and – most importantly – taking initiative to change things where they live.

This is also the case for Marcela Mastac and Andrei Gramatschii, both born and raised in this part of Moldova. Marcela chose a path in communication and PR, while Andrei pursued industrial design. These two seemingly different paths eventually converged, first in private life and later gradually in the family business they would build together. Managing life in such a place is no game to toy around with – yet in the end, that is exactly what they do: they make toys, in the most direct and serious sense. They named their business „GUGA GAGA”, which resembles the first sounds made by a baby.

Toys in Moldova

The toy business in Moldova is booming. However, it is dominated by toys produced abroad, mostly in China. Imports have been steadily rising year after year, reaching almost 3,000 tons in 2024, worth more than half a billion Moldovan lei (~ CHF 25 M).  However, the real volume is almost certainly much higher, considering the countless items ordered online, carried in suitcases across the border, or brought in through the grey market.

The flood of imports has come with a hidden cost. Beneath the bright plastic and low prices lies a worrying question of safety and quality. Consumer protection inspectors report a sharp rise in non-compliant toys over the past two years. In 2024 alone, nearly 850,000 toys were found not to meet legal standards – most often lacking conformity certificates.

In this challenging climate, small businesses, artisans, and the few independent producers like Marcela and Andrei are trying to emerge in the market with something different: toys that are safe, well-made, and genuinely meaningful.

How it all started

Marcela and Andrei’s story didn’t start with wood, screws, and children’s laughter. For a while, their lives looked like many others – stable jobs and freelance projects.

“Before all this, Andrei was teaching at the Technical University, and in parallel we were offering graphic design and design packaging services, combined with marketing through our own small creative studio. What we did back then was all about soft skills and computers. Eventually, we transformed that experience into something very real, very tangible.”, Marcela recalls.

Andrei had always been restless with ideas. He sketched furniture, built prototypes, and even took part in international design competitions. What started as drawings often ended up as real pieces of furniture. The real turning point, however, came with something much smaller than a wardrobe: a busy board (a wooden playboard equipped with buttons, locks, wheels, switches, and other interactive elements designed to stimulate a young child’s curiosity and fine motoric skills). One of their friends wanted to make a special gift for a special occasion and asked if they could help.

After they said yes, they obsessed over the materials, determined to make everything eco-friendly and safe for children. “We were stubborn about it,” says Marcela. “We wanted to work only with wood. If we were to include metal, every piece had to be food-grade stainless steel. I still remember how much work it took. We didn’t even have all the tools we needed back then.”

The process was exhausting – but also incredibly rewarding. They realized this wasn’t just a one-off project. In the end, the busy board was highly appreciated, and the couple received a little over 1,600 Moldovan lei (~80 CHF) for their work. However, they decided that they wanted to do this fulltime.

The „lost and found” year

They applied for a grant designed to support entrepreneurs in Moldova’s security zone, a buffer zone on both sides of the Dniester River created after the Transnistrian War. To qualify, they had to provide 50% co-financing – so they sold their car to make it happen. The effort paid off: the grant gave them their first real boost. The timing couldn’t have been better, since Andrei’s father, a carpenter by trade, was ready to roll up his sleeves and help.

And then came the Covid-19 pandemic.

They had just begun shifting from the digital world to physical production. At first, they thought it would be a smooth transition – it wasn’t. The delivery of the equipment they ordered was delayed again and again. What should have been four months turned into a full year. Andrei lost sleep, worrying that the machines would arrive damaged. “At first we hoped they wouldn’t come with scratches,” Marcela laughs, “but after a while it was like: dear God, just let them arrive.”

But they didn’t waste that year. Instead, they worked on concepts, sketches, and illustrations – making sure that, when the machinery finally landed, they would be ready to hit the ground running. The equipment arrived in containers, disassembled like Lego. It took them more than a month to put it together.

Marcela shakes her head at the memory:

“– I don’t think I would ever do something like that again.”

“– I think we would. We wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t gone down that road,” Andrei replies.

“– Hmm, you are probably right.”

They chose the name GUGA GAGA because it echoes the very first playful sounds of childhood. The brand grew from that simple idea – to create wooden toys that are safe, sustainable, and lasting by working with local wood and non-toxic materials.

Rediscovering Moldova

At first, their focus was entirely on export. Everything – from their Instagram page to their website – was in English, with the conviction that Moldova was not the right market for what they were building. “We were determined not to sell in Moldova, because we thought there was no public here for these products. But we weren’t right. We discovered, almost by accident, that there was a niche – people here want quality toys, made from natural, healthy, ecological materials.”

Now their toys are bought more and more at home. They collaborate with a local courier service, but also sell directly at fairs, where Marcela insists toys should be presented: “These kinds of toys should be in a space where children come, play, test, and only then take them home. That’s why we try to be present at as many events and markets as possible.” Sales abroad still exist, but they are modest – often these are Moldovans sending toys through the “traditional courier” – the minivans carrying food and gifts to families in the diaspora.

The business has not been without obstacles. The couple lives and works close to the internal de facto border of the separatist Transnistrian region, and near a military training ground across the river, where gunfire can sometimes be heard. “There are inconveniences,” Marcela says. “Even just passing through internal customs posts, we are asked what we are doing, what we are carrying. It creates constant small disturbances – a kind of nuisance.” The energy crisis at the beginning of 2025 also hit GUGA GAGA, though not fatally. Their workshop is connected to the grid on the left bank (the territory under the administration of de-facto Transnistrian authorities), which faced serious outages, but Marcela and Andrei had invested in energy-efficient equipment and reorganised their shifts in the workshop, sometimes working during the night hours.

Competition exists, but Marcela points out that the market is flooded mostly with cheap imports of unknown quality. Artisans who do work with wood tend to operate without consistent standards. “You can’t go this month with a product made of walnut, and then next month sell the same product made of a different wood. Once you certify a toy, it always must be the same – with the same materials and the same pieces. We did this bureaucratic process”. 

This attention to quality, she argues, sets GUGA GAGA apart. “It is a very sensitive market segment, but at the same time neglected when it comes to quality control – whether in materials or in the smallest components, whether produced locally or imported”, Marcela adds.

The Swiss support

In 2024 and 2025, Marcela participated in the Swiss-supported business accelerator for women-entrepreneurs, organised by UN Women. The two-year programme provided training, mentorship, and a network of like-minded women entrepreneurs, along with business-expansion grants. GUGA GAGA invested the money in practical upgrades that make daily production smoother.

“We bought a compact pneumatic sander. It is ideal for smoothing small, curved pieces. It helps us save significantly, which matters a lot in a small workshop like ours.”

The financial injection also allowed them to assemble a pneumatic system on their own. “We carefully studied the components, bought the parts, and built it here. To purchase a full system outright would have costed up to €30,000 – far beyond our budget. Doing it piece by piece made it possible within a much smaller budget.”

Future plans

Marcela’s and Andrei’s dream is to one day be able to produce all the furniture for a room – whether for adults or children – in their own unique style. They are working now on small pieces – toys and some furniture, however, they would love to create a company that offers living solutions for the whole family.

Today, GUGA GAGA is still very much a family affair. “I am more in the front – I handle marketing, posts, advertising, customer relations, which is my specialty. Andrei takes care of logistics and production, because his expertise is in industrial design and in creating new toys. We would like to involve other people in the production, so that we can focus on what we do best – me on promotion, him on designing good products,” Marcela says.

Together, they keep going and building – one toy, one idea, one dream at a time.