The war, using appropriate terminology, dealt a blow to the domestic furniture industry – and to all other industries – on all fronts. Unfortunately for some, it is devastating, but for everyone, it is definitely tangible. In the conditions of martial law, in which the country has been for almost a year, even those furniture companies that are located far from the territories where the battles are going on, have reduced production, correspondingly, the volume of furniture sales has also decreased.
The VYN B-52 company, which this story is about, is not a furniture manufacturer or even a furniture dealer, however, it is a member of the Ukrainian Association of Furniture Manufacturers, because it is still related to furniture. She is a landlord. Provides retail space for furniture retail and creates favourable conditions for their use.
Currently, unfortunately, the number of tenants, those to whom the “B-52” shopping center is ready to continue to provide favourable conditions for trade, has decreased. If furniture companies, judging by our previous publications, are forced to use their production capacity often only by half, or even by 30 percent, then the volume of furniture sales at the “B-52” shopping areas has decreased even more. However, more details about this can be found in the story of the company’s executive director Yuriy Bunich.

– As soon as the immediate threat to the capital passed, our shopping center began to resume its trading activities. Indeed, in terms of sales, which are still far from pre-war levels. There are two important reasons for that. The first: nowadays people’s life priorities have changed. Furniture has never been a commodity, and during the war, the need to purchase new ones decreased even more. In addition, the purchasing power of many Ukrainians decreased significantly during the war. The second is logistical: even those who have an urgent need to purchase furniture (the slight demand that still remains is concentrated now on economy-class furniture), we cannot serve properly due to the fact that the delivery of products from the manufacturer has become more difficult under martial law. to the final consumer. If earlier purchased furniture was delivered to your home in a few days, now neither sellers nor furniture factories can guarantee the buyer such terms. The situation when you pay for a purchase, but do not know when you will be able to receive it, certainly does not contribute to the purchasing activity. And that’s not all: the increase in the cost of transport services, which has taken place, also increases the price of the goods being transported. Not only its transportation to the buyer but also the current delivery of materials and components necessary for the production of furniture makes the final product more expensive. All the more imported. This is another factor restraining trade. All this led to the fact that the number of visitors to shopping centers decreased by 70 percent compared to pre-war times, but the trend towards increased sales at the end of last year was still evident. It cannot be otherwise – life goes on. Refugees are returning to their homes, construction work started before the war is being completed.

– Did your tenants, and furniture retailers trade and still trade foreign-made furniture?

– No, our shopping center presents only domestic furniture products. It is represented by both direct manufacturers and intermediary dealers, who usually offer products of several trade brands. It is clear that among those tenants who are currently trading in our shopping center (their number has decreased by ten percent), there are more of them because the cessation of the supply of products from one manufacturer does not leave them without goods – they trade in furniture from a group of other brands.

– Having only an indirect relation to furniture, to our industry, the company nevertheless decided that it should be in the Association of Furniture Manufacturers. What guided you when making such a decision?

– First of all, our clients are either direct furniture manufacturers, who themselves sell their products, or furniture dealers-intermediaries, manufacturers’ dealers. Therefore, it is important for us to be aware of what is happening in the furniture industry: how it lives, what difficulties it overcomes, what development prospects it has, what state the domestic furniture market is in, what trends in the field of furniture fashion are gaining relevance, and which are losing it.