“GUDANI group” is not just a furniture manufacturing enterprise – it is a design concept that unites professionals in their field to implement the most demanding client preferences, and the most complex furniture and interior projects. Its owner, Serhii Dzyubak, could talk for a long time about the pleasant things for him as a manager of the furniture production: about the experience gained by the company in working at the level of the art of mahogany woodworking, thanks to which the company gained credibility not only in Ukraine, collected a generous feast of professional awards, but we have to talk about the realities of the current time

– We understood that in the situation created by the war in the country, and in its economy, there are two options: either to freeze the stopped production until better times come, or, despite a whole series of complications of martial law, to start the factory. We have made a more difficult, more difficult decision – we will work! All the more so because there was a lot to do: the orders started in February and a number of those that have not yet been started remained unfinished. It was noted with pleasure that there was not a single case of customers’ refusal of pre-war agreements.

The needs of wartime forced Serhiy Dzyubak’s company to furnish for a certain time not at the usual level of furniture art – with the use of hand and machine carving, with classic wooden openwork, and, so to speak, “cheap and angry”. However, it would be more correct to replace the concept of “angry” with “quickly” in this stable phraseology. Because this project, which will be discussed, the furniture makers of “GUDANI group” carried out not angrily, but with empathy for those for whom the furniture of this project was intended, and at the level of skill inherent in them, although the project involved a simplified, loft-minimalist execution style. Its goal was, according to the idea of the design office of Oleg Volosovsky, who involved Serhiy Dzyubak’s company in this project, to create a series of furniture, or rather – residential modules – for the arrangement of temporary shelters for refugees and displaced persons who were driven from their homes by the war, as well as bomb shelters. This special series of furniture included bedrooms, kitchens, showers, and toilets, as well as additional items – tables, chairs, lighting, etc.

– Was there a shortage of materials and components?

– No, there were no problems with that. They had their own stocks, and what was missing was bought up. The supplier companies worked and are working reliably, because if we need to produce furniture in order to survive in these difficult conditions, then they, in order to survive, need to properly provide us with everything we need for furniture work.

– And who are mostly your new customers, who now, when there are many other urgent needs, order furniture?

– Mainly the owners of newly built housing – houses and apartments, the construction of which was completed before the start of the war, but not put into operation. And in order to move into new apartments, you need to furnish them. Foreign clients have the same needs, but they implement them with our help, of course, under much more favorable conditions. They find us in different ways – mainly thanks to the recommendations of friends. If it is a design project, then the designers themselves look for profitable, reliable partners and in the end, choose our company.

– Those entrepreneurs who were put on the edge of survival by the war should be asked about the possibilities of company development, which most of them had before the war. And what development opportunities did the war deprive your company of?

– At the beginning of the year, we had already prepared the territory for the new production base. With its current capabilities, it is unrealistic to expand production. Effective investment assistance is required. We are looking for an acceptable one among those offers that sometimes appear.

…We surprised Mr. Serhiy with our call. They were surprised by the fact that they were able to call, because, according to him, the metropolitan area where the company’s production is located had been without electricity, communication, and heating for several days at that time. The company, which resumed furniture production in difficult conditions, is currently undergoing such tests. But the furniture makers do not give up. The main thing would be electricity. Other inconveniences will be tolerated.