The company “BKU” supports the reputation as a reliable supplier

The company “BKU” is a long-term (on the market since 2004) and stable supplier of materials for the production of furniture and doors – glues, PVC films, and decorated paper. It has gone through a long and not always easy path of development, implementing many successful projects. But, unfortunately, to date, it is forced to slow down the pace of its development due to the war, as, in fact, the entire domestic furniture industry.

– And it is not surprising that we have lost the usual pace of development, – confirms the owner and current head of the company Yevhen Nazarenko, – because of the situation in the country’s economy, in our furniture industry, and therefore in our company is really difficult: sales volumes have decreased by more than half.

– Did this decline affect all the products you sell in the same way?

– We are observing a decline in all products, but recently the market for the production of serial furniture and doors has started to become more active, therefore, at the expense of serial producers, we have the opportunity to continue our activities.  The volume of sales of small and medium-sized companies, which worked on individual orders, fell significantly. As you know, there are a large number of internally displaced persons in the country, and these were mainly their potential clients, who have ceased to be them at the moment. We believe that it is temporary. And some of our clients, furniture makers, whose productions are located in temporarily occupied territories or in areas of hostilities, temporarily stopped their activities altogether. It is possible that some of the productions there were also destroyed.

– You trade exclusively in imported products. A considerable number of members of our Association are greatly inconvenienced by the government’s restriction on import deliveries – the well-known decree on critical import goods, which does not include some goods and components necessary for furniture production, which makes it even more difficult to conduct the furniture business in the conditions of martial law. Is your company also limited by this regulation?

– Yes, the restrictions affected us as well, but due to the fact that before the start of the war, our warehouse was loaded with products by almost 100%, for a couple of months, we did not experience any problems due to government restrictions on imports. Moreover, the volume of sales has decreased several times. Currently, the list of critical imports has been expanded, and most of our commodity items are classified as critical import goods, therefore, after a three-month forced pause, we now have the opportunity to purchase and import to Ukraine both adhesives and films. Thanks also to the fact that our reliable foreign supplier partners support us in some difficult issues, we are able to maintain our warehouse stocks in sufficient quantity. But I know from many of our partners that the problem of imports for some product groups still exists, as well as the restrictions of the NBU on the purchase of foreign currency. Import problems also cause the price of all goods to rise, as well as a significant increase in the cost of transportation.

– Did the decrease in salesforce reduce the number of employees in the company?

– It is possible to avoid such embarrassment. Even those employees who were forced to find themselves outside the country, properly perform their job duties, working remotely.  First of all, we try to save all jobs and support our employees in every possible way.