Among the members of the Ukrainian Association of Furniture Manufacturers there are also companies that produce products not only for furniture purposes, and therefore must be equally successful in various markets, popularize them at exhibitions, probably unknown to traditional furniture makers. The current story is about just such a company, whose name is “VKP Paritet-K”, and for whose products the main material is metal, because it produces furniture and other products, the main operational characteristics of which are strength and reliability. This applies to both cabinets for storing weapons and safes of various classes. And even more bank storage systems.

We asked its director, Ruslan Krasyuk, to tell us more about the domestic and foreign markets for such specific products. And we learned that the culture of using the products, the production of which VKP Paritet-K specializes in, is still at a rather low level in Ukraine, so it is not surprising that the main markets for its sales are abroad. They are numerous in number and wide in geography. In 53 countries of the world, they buy the company’s products, paying tribute to their reliability. In foreign countries, Mr. Ruslan said, the same safes are used for reliable and safe storage of money, valuables, and documents not only in banks, organizations and institutions – this is common for our country as well – their home use is also very common. For example, insurance companies oblige their clients to have home safes of different classes. The same applies to cabinets for private storage of weapons – hunting, sports. The requirements for its safe storage are very strict, especially in Germany.

For weapon collectors, for whom it is also prestigious to show them to guests, the cabinets are not solid metal, but glazed on three sides, showcase type. But they use glass in such a way that it is slightly inferior to metal in terms of strength. And this is clearly demonstrated by the company at exhibitions, using video footage of tests on the strength of not only such glass. In fact, like all products, most of which have the appropriate European certificates.

By the way, about exhibitions. Until this year, the company “VKP Paritet-K” had not demonstrated its products at international professional exhibitions for three years. At first, the Covid-19 restrictions got in the way, and last year – the war. Such “exhibition gaps” are not good for a company that is so comprehensively export-oriented, for which foreign sales are a significant source of income. Therefore, at the slightest opportunity – and it happened this year – the company immediately resumed its exhibition activities, taking part in March, as we already reported, in the annual profile exhibition in Nurberg, to testify that, despite the war in the country, the company also viable – and even in development; that has not lost or weakened its role as a reliable partner, an active exporter, that its products remain as competitive.

– Do you only sell your products or do you also offer services for their competent installation – we are primarily talking about safes and bank storage systems?

– We definitely install our products. Without it, sales would be much lower. Not all furniture can be assembled and installed by the buyer himself, and what can we say about the safe – not everyone can even be delivered to the installation site by himself. In addition to the assembly department, the company also has a service division, because we deal with locks of various complexity, including electronic ones, which require periodic or force majeure service. Abroad, such a service is provided by our dealers – we have them in several countries, where we traditionally sell the most products.

– Companies that acquire membership in UAFM do so in particular with the aim of finding reliable partners in the furniture industry for joint projects and generally for mutually beneficial cooperation. Your “metal” company is positioned separately in this furniture community because of your production specifics. Are there no tangents for cooperation with woodworkers?

– You know, there is. We have models of cabinets decorated with wooden elements – there is a demand for such as well. Therefore, we are not against cooperating with woodworkers who would manufacture wooden elements for us as contractors. There is a vision of other opportunities for cooperation with traditional furniture makers, members of the UAFM, which I sent as proposals to the Association’s leadership. Right now, we are looking for partners-contractors to decorate several lines of our products with wood.