It is unnecessary to remind furniture makers which and whose products Häfele Ukraine sells on the Ukrainian market. Yes, it is not a furniture manufacturer, but a supplier. In this difficult time that the country is going through, she does not have such organizational and production difficulties that many of her clients, furniture makers, have to overcome, but the war also affected her activities, as director Ihor Pihurko told us.

However, even before talking with him, it was clear that the company, logically, could not avoid those troubles that did not bypass the industry in general. That is if the war caused a reduction in the volume of production and sales of products for almost all furniture manufacturers, then, of course, the same thing could not happen to the company that supplies them with furniture-making elements – accessories and components. Mr. Ihor specified that in the first months the company worked at forty percent of the pre-war sales volume. There are other common signs of work under martial law: part of the workers went abroad, although Lviv region was not a front-line region, and remote work regime became common in the company, but it, of course, did not apply to the logistics center, which, despite the reduced volumes of sold products, but had to ship and deliver to customers on time. Again, accordingly – at the end of spring, in the summer – when the furniture industry began to “straighten out its shoulders” in spite of the war, things got better for suppliers as well. And now “Häfele Ukraine” is already working at 80 percent of its capacity.

– Of course, we cannot achieve a better result, because there are clients who have completely stopped their production activities in the occupied territories, – clarifies Ihor Pihurko. – But 90 percent, agree, is a very good indicator for the present time. And you know, thanks to what, he is like that? To a large extent, furniture companies in the west of Ukraine, many of which are oriented toward export sales, have become more active.

– Did they receive any tangible support from the manufacturer, your German parent company Häfele, and did they need it?

– Had a logistical need. I will explain. We also receive Häfele products from its foreign factories, some of which are quite far from Europe. At the beginning of the war, there were problems with the delivery of hardware products from there by the old routes, and the Germans helped: they redirected the cargo intended for us to their European logistics centers, and from there they delivered it to us through the western border without any problems.

– Currently, an unpleasant global trend is the constant increase in the price of products. Surely this also applies to your supplier’s hardware?

– Yes, prices continue to rise. Inflation in Europe is on the rise. But it must be admitted that in some positions the opposite is also observed – a decrease in prices. It is still insignificant, barely perceptible, but the process, so to speak, has begun.

– And about the unpleasant. Did the company lose a lot of products in the territories occupied before and now, where your dealerships were located?

– Of course, there are losses. But in general, our turnover is very small. Firstly, there were no cases of direct impact on the premises with our products. Secondly, regional dealers usually do not have significant warehouse stocks, they mostly receive products from our logistics center for specific orders.

– What product novelties did “Häfele” add to its assortment this year?

– Such powerful, innovation-oriented companies as “Häfele” constantly fill the market with new developments. Here is some fresh information. Factories that produce furniture lifts (elevators) have launched a new line of these components.

– Have power outages made your work much more difficult?

– If we did not protect ourselves from this, then, of course, there would be more problems. But we have purchased the necessary number of powerfull generators, which help us in times of mass blackouts.