Kharkiv was the first on the way to the invasion of Ukraine by enemy hordes, therefore the peaceful work of Kharkiv residents stopped from the first for the war, not only because they, like all Ukrainians, were shocked by the war and could not recover for a certain time, and not only because cruel the battles were actually taking place within the city limits, and also because there was no light or Internet.

Of course, the door was not produced until the enemies were pushed away from the city, and the heroine of our story is the Medvied trade company. Now it works, despite the fact that the war “hangs” over the city, and therefore over it, every day. “When shelling doesn’t stop day after day, you get used to it,” says company owner Gennadiy Starovertsev.

However, it can be said that the factory functioned to a certain extent even in the hottest time for the city, although almost all the workers left the city. There remained a storekeeper who shipped finished products to customers, which was prevented from being sent by the terrible morning of February 24. When the people of Kharkiv began to return to the city and to their usual jobs – although, in the conditions of regular shelling, incessant destruction of the city and the increase in the number of dead civilians, they can no longer be called usual jobs – only about a fifth of the company’s former staff returned to their workplaces. However, the volume of sales, and therefore production, decreased significantly. If before the war, according to Gennadiy Starovertsev, about 70-90 doors were sent to customers every day, now there are not even five. And yet, in May, the first significant batch of doors to “Epicenter”, the largest wholesale customer, was already sent. There would be orders, but the metal – the company produces metal doors – is enough: at the beginning of the year, they stocked up based on their usual production volumes.

– There are already quite a few examples when production, in particular in our industry, is relocated from business-critical regions to safer regions, or even abroad. Do you not have such an intention?

– Yes. But for now, several circumstances prevent such a step. First, we have bulky metalworking equipment, and significant warehouse stocks, the transportation of which would not only be difficult but also too expensive for the current financial state of the company. Secondly, the rent of premises in Kharkiv has now been reduced by five times, which allows the company to stay afloat in the current conditions of a significant decline in production. And in more prosperous regions, rents are currently high. Therefore, there is a real fear that we simply will not have the funds left to resume production at the new location. In addition, you will have to look for new customers there.

– Almost everywhere in the country, the working business is forced to reduce the level of salaries of its employees. How do you pay now?

– And we still manage to keep the salary level at the pre-war level. The volumes of sales that we currently have made it possible to decently pay the work of the small number of employees who are currently employed in the company. It is hardly possible to say that we are more successful compared to other manufacturers that have reduced the salaries of their employees because we maintain the pre-war level of salaries thanks to the fact that we work with practically no profit for the company. We sell it for as much as we invested in the product. But so far these are the realities.