For the Ukrainian Association of Furniture Manufacturers, there are no favorites—everyone is equal, equally respected, and has the same associated rights. And that’s the right approach. The company «AZZARE» doesn’t step outside this equality but does have a certain peculiarity: it fulfills orders for the UAFM, which in such cases is effectively its client.

We will discuss this further, but first, some brief information about the company. It was established as a manufacturer of various types of case furniture for homes and offices, as well as commercial equipment—shelves, racks, and so on. With special care and love, «AZZARE» has always approached the production of children’s furniture, including such a rare item in their assortment as a changing dresser. Moreover, the company also offers buyers of children’s furniture a soft toy-pillow, even though it is a manufacturer of case furniture.

Our Association is helped by «AZZARE» in organizing participation in foreign exhibitions in the format of collective national stands, which, as many participants of such UAFM events know, began to be actively practiced after the start of the war, when many of our members began actively reorienting toward foreign markets. They manufactured exhibition equipment for the UAFM, which they assemble each time with certain modifications, forming an attractive national collective exhibition stand. According to the company’s director, Inna Salai, such business cooperation with the Association greatly helped the company when the domestic furniture market was practically collapsed in the first year of the war, causing the company to suffer a significant reduction in furniture sales, and the number of orders decreased to a critical level.

– Before the war, – specifies Ms. Inna, – we sold a significant amount of products by actively participating in state tenders. But in wartime conditions, when prices for everything rose sharply, the state continued to form tender positions based on pre-war prices, which made our proposal non-winning, and accordingly, tender sales did not become a reliable source of income for the company. This forced us to reorient to various kinds of art projects. That’s when our business relationship with the UAFM began. We implemented the first exhibition project for the Association in the first year of the war, when it decided, despite the tense situation in the country, to present a group of Ukrainian furniture manufacturers at a Polish furniture exhibition in Poznań.

— Were there any difficulties with assembling the stands due to the ban on men leaving the country, which probably also applies to your business partner Serhiy Fedorovskyi?

– When male volunteers still had the opportunity for temporary travel, we had no issues with assembling exhibition stands for the first three exhibitions. There weren’t any problems afterward either because we began sending abroad able-bodied pensioners and people with disabilities. We also involved local residents.

Work at the first exhibitions enriched us with the necessary experience, knowledge of all the nuances and peculiarities, rules, and requirements set by the organizers of different exhibitions in different countries. This is very important because any deviation from these requirements, any violation of the rules, threatens significant fines. Now, knowing precisely the requirements of each exhibition’s organizers and how to utilize the rented space to avoid the slightest deviations from established requirements, we manage more quickly and easily on the exhibition site. Accordingly, the obligatory presentation and defense of the stand before the organizers have also become simpler.

– Does the design of the stands change each time?

– The design of the stand for the first exhibition, in which the UAFM prepared participation in the format of a national stand, was developed by Dmytro Novikov. It became the base and is the property of the Association, although it is stored with us. But for each subsequent exhibition, certain new elements are added to the base model, new colors are used, different lighting, and so on. Thus, the base structure is updated to meet the needs of a specific exhibition and the participants of the collective stand, whose composition is different each time. The stand for a specific exhibition clearly corresponds to the technical task that we receive each time from the UAFM management. Moreover, the rented exhibition area of the national stand is different each time, and we also have to adjust to it every time.

–  And did your company—as a furniture manufacturer—participate in those exhibitions for which you prepared stands? Did you showcase your own products?

– In fact, the company was a participant in each exhibition we helped prepare, demonstrating the exhibition stand as a product of our own production. But we only brought our furniture once. We can’t do it more often because we currently lack the financial capability. It’s not only that; the company still does not have the technical capabilities (the full set of necessary equipment) to seriously consider exporting. Some woodworking operations are subcontracted to partner companies for us, for example, the well-known ‘Kronos.’ This increases the cost of our final product in serial production. Therefore, it is more profitable for us to undertake exclusive projects.

– You mentioned art objects that have become a new direction in the company’s activities. Can you name examples of already implemented projects?

– These are projects for many museums—the National Shevchenko Museum, the Khanenko Museum, the Mystetskyi Arsenal. These are not only stand-display products but also largely exclusive art objects, that is, entirely non-standard items.

–  Have you fully mastered this new area for the company, or do difficulties arise?

– It’s not so much difficulties as additional challenges. Usually, among museum staff, there are no technical specialists who could clearly formulate a technical task, so we develop projects based only on their approximate descriptions of the future object. Because of this, we often have to repeatedly coordinate the proposed variant.

–  What is most important for the company now?

– To preserve our team, which is 90 percent male. You understand how important and difficult this is in the current situation in the country.