Furniture business with plumbing or plumbing – with furniture?
Aqua Rodos companies have enriched their export experience even when Ukrainian furniture was available to the huge market of the northern neighbor. To many, he gave the opportunity to frankly ignore the markets of the Western world: why bother and burden yourself with customs and other troubles to satisfy the whims of impressively Europe, when Russia seamlessly “swallows” everything that you don’t offer? And when the situation changed – the northern neighbor “grinned” us, we had to turn around towards the demanding Europe and learn to please her.
– In general, the company supplied its products to the CIS countries – furniture and bathroom accessories, and plumbing equipment – at the beginning of 2000, Sergey Kashilov, the head of the export department, goes deeper in history. – Our company was just not one of those who, except Russia, saw nothing and did not seek. We had certain European supplies in the times of Russian openness. Of course, the volumes were incomparable with those received by the Russian market.
In 2015, when Ukrainian goods began to be actively ousted from the Russian market, the company Aqua Rhodes purposefully and aggressively began to intensify in the western direction. It immediately became clear that with the standard assortment that was in demand in Ukraine, the countries of the former Soviet Union, you could not achieve the desired sales on European markets. Actually, this situation has survived to this day, at least in the bathroom furniture category. In a rich and more civilized Europe, other preferences and standards. Therefore, practically everything that Aqua Rhodes currently supplies to Europe is made in the design of local customers and sold there under their private label.
– What is the main difference between furniture that you make to order to foreign customers, from the furniture of your main line?
– The difference is primarily in the design, which reflects the tastes and preferences of the western buyer, his ideas about what should be the bathroom furniture. The tastes of Europeans are not that dramatic, but they do not coincide with ours, which we have seen in practice. We have several attempts to offer the domestic market those models that are running in the western markets. No, they did not have the desired success.
– And if we talk about basic furniture materials, then in this sense there are no differences?
– It happens like that. Let’s say Bulgarians are surprised, how is it that the bathroom furniture is made of chipboard? They believe that plastic for this purpose is more suitable.
– What are the western countries in the export priority of the company?
– I would call the UK. And also such countries as Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Finland …
– Now – if not the entire Ukrainian furniture industry, then its representatives are no worse – they are waiting for participation in the July government trade mission just to the UK and joint participation in the Manchester furniture exhibition. Is your company among the favorites?
– Just not. Not because we were overlooked – we ourselves do not have such a need, because not of those who want to take the first steps in the British market. We have not been new there for a long time, and our presence there is consistently successful. We have studied the British market sufficiently – so to speak, we know what and how.
– That is, you could have for colleagues in the Association who will take the first steps in this market, what can they do as consultants?
– So far no one has addressed us in such a need. But if we address, we will think in what form and in what specific way we could serve – so that we don’t even reveal our trade secrets, really share something that is useful and acceptable to others.
– The traditional question of our column: what do you see for yourself export prospects, what new markets are you aiming at?
– I would like more volumes than now to be present in the markets of North America. Some developments for this already exist. Markets are far from us, and the way there, as we have already seen, is long and difficult.
– Does export of bathroom furniture have any specific features?
– Of course, this is a completely different category, a segment of furniture products. Furniture exhibitions often do not even coincide with exhibition events. We fully consider our plumbing, construction exhibitions. And its business – the business in the sanitary field. With a furniture component.

The heading “Success Stories” was founded in the framework of a grant project with the support of the Swiss Cooperation Office in Ukraine, the project name: “Increasing the level of cooperation and trust with joint participation in international and national government procurement” – TENDER TOGETHER.