As the leading furniture manufacturer in their hometown, Poltava, the “Gold&Wood” furniture and design studio successfully furnishes homes for clients throughout Ukraine. Constantly evolving and improving, and collaborating with the best designers in Poltava, their experts offer an individual approach for each project, choosing the only correct exclusive solution.

The war has harmed the company in many ways, as it has every Ukrainian manufacturer and business. However, as always, it did not prevent them from fulfilling clients’ ideas of any complexity, treating furniture work as art. Thanks to this, among other things, as one of its co-founders, Yaroslav Kozak, explained, the company managed to reach almost pre-war production levels in the third quarter of last year, which was a failure for the domestic economy. He believes that potential clients who did not manage to make orders before the war, or who did not dare to do so in the general confusion at the beginning of the war, realized by autumn that the frontline situation had stabilized, and the war had entered a protracted phase. Therefore, they would have to live in such conditions for an uncertain period, meaning they needed to return to their former plans and invest the funds collected for them. And so, orders became more active.

– Is kitchen production still a priority direction for the company?

– At one time, we did indeed focus on kitchen production, and quickly became known primarily as a kitchen manufacturer. On the one hand, it’s certainly good that we’re valued for this, but on the other hand, the company, which is no worse than kitchens, can produce furniture for other purposes and has become a hostage to this “kitchen image” that it has cultivated, which is not as beneficial for us today. We have to gradually break this stereotype.

– Now tell me about the production of furniture facades that you use as components not only for your own furniture production needs but also sell to fellow furniture manufacturers who don’t produce them themselves. The supplier aspect has also added to the company’s reputation and authority in the industry. How are things going for you in this direction now?

– They’re relatively good. And here’s why. Painted facades have turned out to be in a more favourable price position, which was particularly evidenced by the beginning of this year’s changes in prices for various covering and finishing materials. And since the company has always preferred painted facades, we found ourselves in a more advantageous position. Secondly, thanks to the purchase of new, more productive equipment, which in turn allowed us to reduce production costs and improve the quality of the finished product. We could have increased facade deliveries to furniture makers in western regions, since local makers of the facades, taking a course for export, sell most of their products abroad, but because logistics have become significantly more expensive (and the distances are considerable), our products there will not be competitive. There is also another factor in the company’s facade sales growth. We started selling them wholesale through large furniture hardware stores, which we did not do before the war, focusing on individual customers of the “garage” type.

– Judging from your story about the state of affairs in the company, I wouldn’t say that there are one hundred percent opportunities for its further development, but some do appear.

– Yes. And we have not hesitated to take advantage of them already. For example, for the further expansion and improvement of the facade direction, we have purchased a modern multifunctional processing centre. Its purchase was planned for last year, but the war corrected our plans. However, it was only postponed for a short time, which is pleasing. We will continue to gradually modernize our machine park.