The company “FRANKOF” from Ivano-Frankivsk region is known in the domestic furniture industry as a successful manufacturer of the most modern soft furniture, whose products in design are not inferior to leading European manufacturers, and in quality are much better and more reliable. It’s worth noting that recently the company has expanded its market niche, offering not only traditionally soft furniture but also solid wood products. In today’s conditions, achievement is not the constancy of business processes in a particular industry, but the ability to develop them, grow and expand the capabilities of the enterprise. The company has not lost this ability, as we were convinced after talking with its financial director Vasyl Chornomazom.

– For people, war is a disaster, for the economy – a crisis, as evidenced by the state of the domestic market, especially in the first, most critical months of the treacherous Russian invasion. And every hardship, every surge of difficulties not only complicates life but also mobilizes, turning on the creative adaptation inherent in us by nature. In our team, we don’t lack such people, so the situation that developed after February 24, 2022, driving the domestic market into stagnation, revealed the permanent task of finding an alternative. And although it was obvious: export, it took a lot of managerial effort to increase it to such a level as to have enough orders for stable factory operation. To some extent, it was helpful that before the war we already had experience in export sales to Romania. It was insignificant, but important. That is, we no longer had to start “from scratch” in foreign markets.

Many colleagues from the east and south of the country, among whom were exporters who found themselves under occupation or in the combat zone, stopped working, so their foreign clients began to look for other profitable partners in Ukraine. Our company also fell into their area of attention, which significantly simplified and accelerated our export growth to Romania, as well as to Moldova, Germany, Spain, France, Slovakia, Poland.

Today, exports to Moldova have decreased somewhat. The economic situation in Moldova is difficult even without the war, hence the low purchasing power of the population. And furniture in the price category in which ours is (medium plus) does not have the desired demand. The decline in exports to Poland is also a trend of the last few months. Surprisingly, for the same reason. In addition, there are fears associated with the military situation in the country, even though we are located far from the front.

– Is the staff “hunger” characteristic of your region as well?

– Yes. The reduction of companies’ personnel potential is a nationwide unpleasant trend caused by the war. Although we feel that recently – at least in our area – the personnel tension has eased. Our company actively continues to strengthen its own advantages in the employer market, consolidating its brand among potential candidates as one that is prestigious. We have a decent salary level for current times, quite comfortable working conditions. The company is actively preparing to reserve its employees and has high chances of getting it.

– Now tell us more about expanding the product range through the establishment of production of cabinet furniture and solid wood furniture. It turns out that the company managed to take such a wide step on the path of its development despite the war?

– Yes. The war made adjustments to our planned terms for commissioning the workshop for the production of two new furniture lines, but it did not stop this process. We achieved the desired result despite all the unfavorable external factors.

Now we can implement complex projects, as they say, “turnkey”. Thus, thanks to significant investment in the company’s development, we occupied an important market niche, which significantly expanded and strengthened its position. Especially in the HoReCa sector. And we have already taken advantage of this, receiving large orders for furnishing hotels and restaurants, particularly in Germany and Slovakia.

Having a large network of our own salons in Ukraine, we still sell more products retail, but with the acquisition of the ability to implement “turnkey” projects, we notice that the HoReCa segment has prospects as one of the key areas of activity for the company in the future.

– Clearly, such a large-scale project for the company’s development required significant investment funds. Was the company able to accumulate them for this?

– A significant share in this project is our own funds, but investments from outside were also needed. But we also had to enlist significant support from the state, which provided, on favorable terms provided by the financing program for the development of the processing industry, a significant grant used to purchase equipment for the production of new types of products and their further increase.