Gevorg Avetisyan arrived in the Czech Republic from Armenia in 1995, and settled with his family in Frýdek-Mistek, in the foothills of Beskydy Mountains. He prayed to God to show him how to support his family, and promised that if He helped him, he would have the cross of the local Saint Jost Church restored.
Soon after that he remembered a "Miracle": an old Armenian family recipe for his favourite honey cake. So, he and his sister Hasmik started baking it and selling it to local restaurants and confectioners. The cake became very popular, and as demand soared, the siblings set up a company called Miko International. They named the cake Marlenka, after both their mother and Gevorg's daughter. This was in 2003, when the company employed four people.
In 2006 the company moved to bigger premises. Demand for Marlenka cakes grew steadily, and in April 2008 the foundation stone was laid for a new production hall in the industrial zone on the outskirts of the town. Construction took just 12 months, and was one of the largest investments in the region since the year 2000. The new factory has an area of 4,000 sq.m. and consists of a production hall with fully automated baking line, a decorating and packaging line, areas for manual production of other products and an administration building.
While the initial monthly production was about 100 units, since the end of 2008 the modernized plant has been producing over 100,000 cakes a month. It has some 200 employees working in a non-stop operation. To meet the increasing demand, yet another expansion of production is in the pipeline.
Meanwhile the cross of St Jost church has been coated with gold.