He has a father of two sons, and all three are furnishers

Both those who work with natural wood and those who process so-called wood materials, ie wood-containing ones, to which slabs belong the most, are now included in the huge woodworkers’ workshop. The furniture makers of the Kharkiv company “KviKo” are woodworkers in the original sense of the word, because they create furniture from natural wood, preferring alder, to be even more specific.

One of the co-founders of the family company, Vitaliy Kondratyuk, said that they also came to the “real woodworking”, so-called, stuffing their hands in working with board materials. And when we finally decided on the furniture material, we also specified the purpose of the furniture to specialize in. And now “Kviko” is positioned in the industry as a manufacturer of teenage beds. 

– There is a category of “children’s furniture”, which includes both furniture for babies and teenagers. Especially when it comes to bedroom furniture, which predominates in the range of your products. Why did you become even more specific in the production of children’s furniture?

– We have experience in the manufacture of furniture for babies. When furnished with the use of laminated chipboard, swaddling chests of drawers were made. And when there was a financial crisis – chipboard became much more expensive – they went to work with the array. Economic circumstances forced. By the way, we return to the experience of cabinet furniture for the manufacture of bedside tables, and thus the formation of a comprehensive market offer. They will basically also be made of solid wood. And as well as beds will be finished with ecological varnishes and water-based paints, – Vitaly told.

For small furniture, companies are characterized by the fact that their owners are both managers and so-called “playing coaches”, ie are directly involved in furniture. And universally. And the company “Kviko” is similar to dozens of the same calibre in that it does without full-time or involved designers, designers, technologists. These functions were taken over by the co-owners of Kondratyuka. This is especially true of Vitaly himself, who performs the functions of a designer. The younger brother is a shop worker. The father is the general manager of the company and is concerned with the technical side of the family furniture business.     

At the design stage of creating bedroom furniture, Vitaly noted, the material itself helps – the same alder on which the company made a bet. Helps by the fact that it is a breed with beautiful wood – colour and texture. And easy to handle. This allowed Kondratyuk to create about thirty models of teenage beds, which differ not only in design but also in construction – ordinary bed, ottoman, bunk, corner… An important element of bed design – headboardsʼ. Kviko has at least a dozen different versions of bed headboards, which are the main model-making components. Another component of the design diversity of bed models is the options for their colour decoration. The basic option is only varnishing to preserve the natural woody appeal of natural alder. In addition, the manufacturer offers a 35- colour bed. And colourful and in general, and in detail.           

– This is one of our competitive advantages, – says Vitaly. – Another – we have a wide range of beds. I would like to say that it was decided when we entered this highly specialized segment of the furniture market. At that time, Ukrainian manufacturers of children’s furniture competed with each other, offering, among other things, almost the same standard bed model. Competed with those who offer a better price. And we decided to compete with them, offering a wide range of model beds for teenagers, specializing exclusively in the production of this segment of children’s furniture. And we successfully withstand such competition. 

– In the summer, the company took part in the first Ukrainian Bayer exhibition “FUBE-2021”, which has international status. It, as you said, was the first for you. Are you satisfied with the result? 

– We focused more on Ukrainian furniture retail, deciding to participate in this exhibition because I am frankly not ready for export deliveries yet. I wanted to expand sales channels in the domestic market, going beyond regional borders. And it worked. In addition, we met and talked with mutual interest with those partners with whom we already have long-term trade relations, but in absentia.