The topic of the webinar, organized and conducted by the Ukrainian Association of Furniture Manufacturers with the participation of specialized experts and industry market participants, was so relevant today. In this publication, we will reproduce their views on how to intensify existing sales channels and find new customers in domestic and foreign markets.

 

Real, albeit limited, opportunities in the domestic market

Initially, the speakers invited to the meeting paid attention to the domestic market, the realities of which, due to Russian aggression, are no longer what they were two months ago. Unfortunately, its capabilities have narrowed markedly, and in some regions, it has ceased to function at all. But at the same time, some new opportunities opened up for woodworkers and furniture makers. In particular, opportunities to join projects that are implemented for the needs of wartime.

RE: UKRAINE project

Project presentation and contacts for communication by the link

 

One of them is the RE: UKRAINE modular town for refugees and displaced persons project, developed by the Balbek bureau, said Darina Ignatieva, assembly and cooperation manager and designers Maria Kozachuk and Maria Povstyana. The authors of the project propose to use a wooden-frame modular system for the construction of such temporary housing. Of course, such housing will require the most necessary furniture, ie there will be a need for almost all types of residential furniture. And not only residential, but the project also provides for public buildings. Balbek bureau is currently looking for furniture companies that could join the project as contractors. You will need furniture, both serial and individualized. It is important to know that the project, of course, will be implemented in a relatively short time – two or three months. That is, for furniture manufacturers who are interested in such an offer, you will need to be able to flexibly adjust their production to the needs and requirements of this project. Of course, we are talking about furniture for social housing, ie economy class. In the selection of contractors, preference will be given to furniture companies with significant production capacity so that they can produce large volumes of furniture products in a short time, and those that are able to hand over turnkey facilities.

Shelter 22 Project

Project presentation and contacts for communication by the link

Hochu Rayu design bureau also offers the Shelter 22 project for almost the same purpose. It was detailed during the webinar by the co-founder of the bureau Vitaliy Kyryliv. The main approach to the arrangement of temporary housing in “Hochu Rayu” – is the maximum provision of people with individual living space.

Shelter 22 is a long-term temporary housing option in the form of a personal housing module with basic elements for families of four. There is also a social module that can be used as a kindergarten, school class, etc. As well as the so-called basement security module, which would shelter people in case of shelling or bombing.

LIM Capsule Project

 

Hochu Rayu also offers the LIM Capsule project, which provides a different approach to the creation of temporary housing – using existing buildings (usually designed for non-residential use), organizing them with the help of capsule modules’ interior living space. The Bureau also seeks synergistic cooperation with furniture for the implementation of these social housing projects.

Furniture for resettlement centres

Oksana Donska, a member of the UAFM board and head of the FUBE exhibition, spoke more specifically and objectively about the furniture intended for resettlement centres. In the first days of the war, she noted, Ukrainian furniture companies provided thousands of beds, mattresses and other furniture items needed for the urgent arrangement of resettlement centres as charity and volunteer assistance. Later, such centres were able to and began to purchase the necessary furniture from furniture makers. If at first such applications came from the western regions, where the flow of refugees was directed in the first place, now the applications come from other areas where there is no fighting. Of course, those companies that have joined such a social movement, and do not expect to receive significant income from furniture for the needs of refugees, are guided by other, civic and patriotic goals. And furniture and mattresses for such needs, it is necessary to recognize, usually from cheap and available in current conditions materials, simple forms considering their temporary use.

Opportunities to increase exports

The best conditions and prospects for the sale of furniture in companies that have long established themselves in foreign markets or that will be able to enter now. Those who intend to intensify their exports by gaining new customers, and especially those companies that are just hatching export plans, Oksana Donskaya is looking to participate in the famous exhibition “Meble Polska”, which will start in three weeks. Ukrainian furniture makers will set up a collective stand ” FURNITURE OF UKRAINE”. The Poznan exhibition has long gained popularity. It attracts buyers and furniture retailers, online store managers, and buyers of serial furniture from around the world, so Ukrainian furniture makers, who will not miss this event, have a good opportunity to contact them for possible cooperation. Applications for participation in the collective national stand are still accepted. For those companies that will not be able to join the collective stand, but still want to somehow “light up” on it, the organizers are ready to meet by presenting their catalogues and prices.

A little later, also in May, a similar representation of Ukrainian furniture will be at an exhibition in Dubai. Visitors to this exhibition will be interested mainly in custom-made furniture for restaurants, villas and hotels.

Oksana Donska advised companies whose employees or their relatives found themselves outside the country due to sad circumstances to involve them as sales agents in acquainting local furniture retailers with the company’s products and other methods of finding foreign clients.

Tender opportunities

Presentation and contacts for communication by the link

 

Taras Shymko, an expert on tenders at GPA in UA, focused his speech, of course, on tender opportunities to promote furniture abroad. Admittedly, he noted that Ukrainian furniture makers have not been very active in international tenders in the past. Nowadays, when domestic auctions are held with less intensity, one should radically reconsider one’s attitude to participation in international tenders, especially since most domestic furniture manufacturers fully meet the criteria for participation in such tenders. Furniture manufacturers will need to follow the ProZorro platform and the proposals that will appear in the projects of international donor financial organizations, which will relate to their participation in the reconstruction of Ukraine. Furniture items will definitely be present in them. Moreover, bidding will be conducted under simplified tender procedures.

By the way, a new auxiliary tool “ProZorro +” has already been launched on this platform, which is designed to meet the needs of government and volunteer customers and buyers of the most popular standardized products.

Opportunities to export using ENN tools

Presentation and contacts for communication at the link

 

In turn, Oleksiy Hrushetskyi, Advisor to the Director of the Office for Entrepreneurship and Export Development, USAID Competitive Economics Expert, reminded of the possibilities of exporting using ENN tools. In particular, he said that the export-promoting government agency together with the Ministry of Culture supplemented the application “Action” with the section “Business”. Export “, which was enriched by the page” Export during the war “, which export-oriented manufacturers advised using to find foreign partners in the updated database, to obtain information on certain simplifications of customs procedures, the possibility of substituting Russian and Belarusian goods on international markets.

Motor transport remains a reliable logistics tool

Sales of manufactured products in the domestic market, and especially in foreign markets, have a direct logistical dependence. Did the transport of peaceful goods become more difficult during the war? Not without that. Especially for those manufacturers and traders who use their own vehicles: some drivers are mobilized to ensure the logistics of military cargo. As a result, some companies have shifted to rail and sea transportation of their products.

Here is what another speaker of the webinar – a representative of Rio-Trans Ruslan Shmakov – said about this. He assured that the international logistics used by motor transport continues to function, but its services have become twice as expensive. The rise in prices was primarily due to higher fuel prices and increased mileage of some deliveries. For example, it is now necessary to get to the Baltic countries via Poland, and not as before through Belarus.

The war reduced exports, but not as much as imports. Now there is even an increase in road transport from Ukraine abroad. There are hopes and even the first signs that transportation from abroad will not be limited to the delivery of humanitarian goods. With the availability and effectiveness of insurance policies in our country and the validity of contracts stipulating force majeure, the delivery of goods can be entrusted to foreign hauliers.

Automotive logistics is now not part of the sea. As Ukrainian trade ports are blocked by the war, it is necessary to transport goods to the ports of other maritime states by car in order to continue the sea delivery route.

For Ukrainian transport companies, the situation has been complicated by the fact that they must ensure that drivers of the conscription age who travel abroad are required to return, rather than using their work as an opportunity to stay abroad.

Ruslan Shmakov’s conclusion: motor transport in the conditions of war not only remains an important logistical means, but also its share in the total volume of freight transportations will grow.