• Furniture, look for foreign investors

• Your customers have changed a lot

• More and more offer remote work

• For the final “understanding” with the kitchen

• They declare “war” on illegal furniture

Everything that happened last week in Ukraine and the world and that is relevant to the furniture maker, read in our digest:

1. The Finance Committee of the Verkhovna Rada recommends that the Parliament amend the Tax Code within the framework of the Law on Investment Nannies. Proposes to provide temporary, until January 1, 2035, tax benefits for an investor with significant investments, who is a party to a special investment agreement.

The draft law proposes to establish that by January 1, 2035, equipment imported into the territory of Ukraine will be exempt from import duty, subject to the implementation of an investment project with significant investments.

2. 2021 will be a defining year for the entire 21st century, according to the global consulting company “Accentur” and give advice that can help businesses be successful.

Last year, many people left densely populated cities and moved to less populated areas in rural areas. What does this mean for business? Collective relocation has had a tremendous impact on people’s behavior, so many companies need to realize that the customers they have studied well have changed greatly. And there is a suspicion that forever. Companies need to make new decisions that allow them to deliver services outside the usual schemes through which they have interacted with customers so far.

3. Since the beginning of this year’s quarantine restrictions in Ukraine, the number of vacancies offering remote work has increased by 26%. As of mid-January, four percent of all offers on the labor market relate to vacancies for telecommuting. Conclusion: the increase in offers for remote work indicates a positive change in the attitude of employers to the work of employees outside the offices.

4. Giulia Novars presented in one of its showrooms a kitchen with an integrated “smart home” system, which provides a new way for users to interact with furniture. Now, thanks to intelligent technologies, it is possible to control, including remotely, numerous mechanisms in the cabinets and adjust the light in the kitchen via voice control or via smartphone.

Yandex Alice, a girl with a good “electronic reputation”, was chosen as the voice assistant. All you have to do is ask Alice to prepare the kitchen for work, and she will immediately open the storage cabinets and turn on the lights in the cooking area.

5. The Association of Furniture and Wood Industry of Russia this year will focus on strengthening control over illegal furniture manufacturers by tax and law enforcement agencies. To this end, the Association proposed to the Ministry of Industry and Trade to establish a joint working group.

According to AMDPR, the share of “black” production in the Russian furniture market is from 20 to 40 percent, and the volume of the shadow market is about 40 billion rubles. As a result, legal manufacturers are not competing with each other, but with underground production, and this could lead to illegal furniture makers displacing legal ones from the Russian market, who create jobs, pay taxes and develop the economy.