fbpx

UAFM in the faces: how to work in martial law. Tells Victoria Kameneva, co-owner and designer of BLANCHE

“Three whales” on which the brand “BLANCHE” is kept

The capital company BLANCHE is a furniture business of brothers Yaroslav and Leonid Kamenev, who remain its direct managers. And the main designer in it is Leonid’s wife, Victoria. And this is a good reason to start a whole furniture dynasty. Victoria’s story about the company, in fact, became this publication.

Design, comfort, quality – the “three whales” on which the products of the brand “BLANCHE” are based. The design and operational comfort of her upholstered furniture due to the perfection of their design, successful ergonomics – a direct area of responsibility of Victoria, her creative efforts. The production, equipped with modern equipment of leading European brands (for example, a cutting complex for Lectra textiles, which eliminates the cutting errors that can be assumed by human hands), gives the designer every opportunity to fully realize her creative ideas. As a result, the company has a wide range of upholstered furniture: almost two dozen models of sofas, and about a dozen models of beds and chairs. And also has its own line of mattresses. Half of the models are in the top sales category.

Due to this, the factory has opened up attractive export prospects, which it has skillfully used and has been supplying its products to foreign countries for a long time, where it has offices. The list of such countries includes Lithuania, Georgia, Moldova, Poland and Romania. There was also an overseas supply route – to Canada.

Since the beginning of the year, the factory has continued its course to expand and increase production capacity, but the war prevented it from reaching the planned targets, making unpleasant adjustments. However, before the war, several new models of upholstered furniture were launched this year. In particular, sofa L OTUS and chair PAUL. The new models take into account current design trends – in particular, rounded shapes with smooth lines. As for upholstery materials for upholstered furniture, here, of course, is applied what is currently in the furniture trend – in particular at the peak of popularity upholstery fabric type “boucle”. This is an original linen weave textile with a loose structure and characteristic nodular surface that _ resembles a doodle. Velours do not go out of fashion.

Traditionally, the factory develops and manufactures exclusive original supports for the models of its furniture, which has become a characteristic feature of its furniture.

the first conversation with Victoria Kameneva took place just before the war, which delayed the writing of this material for three months, and when we returned to it, we contacted Victoria again to find out what these three months of the war were for BLANCHE.

– Unexpected full-scale aggression by Russia, fighting almost on the outskirts of the capital, the critical situation forced many companies to stop production at first. Ours is no exception, – Victoria said. – However, the company continued to operate. Worked for some time in remote mode. When our army eliminated the immediate threat to the capital, the BLANCHE factory resumed furniture production. Of course, not to the same extent as before the war, but what was planned for this year – in particular the development of five or six new models – is being fulfilled.

– Do you continue to produce furniture in the traditional price segment for you?

– Mostly. But we are also aware that many Ukrainians who have been deprived of a roof over their heads will have to rebuild as much as possible, and these opportunities will be limited, so they will need inexpensive furniture to build new or renovated houses and apartments. Awareness of this has to some extent adjusted our plans. We understand that it is time to produce budget furniture.

– Many functioning furniture companies today do not stand aside from the popular support of our army, people who turned out to be refugees…

– Our company is one of those that also help the army as much as possible, but not “loudly”. We do not consider it correct to publicize this.

 

Share This: