The difficult trials of the war and all the troubles caused by it befell the young metropolitan furniture company “DESIRE ROOM” during its formation period, so in some places, they turned out to be more difficult than for experienced entrepreneurs. And yet, an almost unbelievable thing happened: the company ended the last military year with better indicators than the previous one, 2021.

– On the eve of the war, the company was on the rise of its development: many orders, the need to expand production, recruitment of new employees, – recalls the owner of the company Serhiy Polishchuk. – But the newly hired personnel never had to start work…

From the following day, February 25, the company suspended work, and on the 24th they were still working – at least the management, managers were busy calling customers, informing them of the decision to take a production break for an indefinite period with assurances that all agreements, contracts remain in force, the company will return to their completion when the situation clears up and at the earliest opportunity to resume factory operations. That is, they assured us that we will definitely fulfil the commitments made by the company and that the already transferred client funds will not be lost.

In Rivne, where Serhiy and his business partner Tetiana Fedchenko moved their families, they started doing volunteer work – in particular, they helped transport food to Kyiv and Kharkiv regions. They were physically unable to sit idle, Serhiy says because they were used to the fact that before the war, every day was full of many things from morning to late evening. Then there was a temptation to relocate their production, which some furniture manufacturers also tried, but after carefully weighing all the pros and cons, they gave up on such an idea. Mainly due to the fact that the company has a client base exclusively in Kyiv and the capital region, and they did not see a real opportunity to acquire a full-fledged one there.

– A real opportunity to prove in practice what was promised to clients at the beginning of the war appeared in May when they returned to Kyiv, which was safe from enemy capture, – continues the story of the head of “DESIRE ROOM“. – They called the clients again – to inform them that they are ready to start work. It was rather gratifying that all the pre-war contracts remained in force, despite the fact that the war made them more expensive by thirty percent, so the company had to work almost non-stop until November to fulfil them all.

– Have you received new orders during this time?

– A little. According to the ratio, they turned out to be twenty percent in the volume of all those who performed last year. We practised with them quite quickly, because mostly they were quite easy for our competence, simple projects, which is generally typical for wartime orders. That is, such projects, similar to those which we have performed more than once.

The production tension in the new year decreased noticeably, but this does not make us happy at all, because we are used to the fact that we always had a lot of work, a lot of orders. We are getting used to new realities when customers are not waiting in line for us, but we ourselves have to look for them, offer favourable conditions, and convince them that they should order furniture from us.

– Some of your colleagues, who have found themselves in the same situation, are looking for luck in foreign markets.

– We are also actively studying foreign markets, even conducting negotiations with those who could become our new customers. We purchase equipment that was lacking, master efficient, high-performance technologies, and introduce means of economical production. Especially since now, there is more time for this.

Incidentally, we should note that our conversation with Serhiy Polishchuk took place when he was in the train carriage that was taking him to Kyiv from Kovel, where he was engaged in the purchase of such equipment.