With Vasyl Mykolayovych Balytskyi, the owner and manager of the company that produces upholstered furniture under the trade mark Mebli Mayak in Polonnyy, Khmelnytskyi, it was not possible to talk about his current business realities from the first phone call. The reason for the postponement of the conversation turned out to be very sad: I was going to a funeral. They carried out the last journey of the fallen soldier, a man whom he knew well.

Among the defenders are also furniture makers from his company. It is very much hoped that the enemy bullet and projectile will bypass them, and they will return victoriously to their families and to peaceful furniture work. Meanwhile, Mebli Mayak  is forced to do without them, but they do not lose contact with them – they support them morally, and help them materially. Just as they are preparing to send them to the front, the “bead” is being insulated: the cabin is being insulated, sheathing it with fiberboard. This is just one example out of many, says Vasyl Mykolayovych, because for setting up the positions, you need slab materials and self-tapping screws, and much more, which the front company does not refuse. And not only to units in which their boys are fighting.

And in the first weeks of the war, as we learned from its manager, the company completely became, as they say, on “war rails”. Since it deals with fabrics according to production specifications, and therefore also has sewing equipment, they sewed body armour and other military ammunition for soldiers. For this, the company did not spare its materials, and the employees – their efforts. They were ready to work for free, but the company could still pay them at least at that time. The army also needed beds, and the company also mass-produced them, equipped them with mattresses, and supplied them to volunteer centres, attracting for this purpose charitable funds from acquaintances, friends, and even strangers, caring people who responded after learning about the purpose of such gatherings.

However, the country continued to live not only by war. The everyday life of people – those who were directly burned by it, and those who were lucky enough to avoid enemy destruction and losses – required the usual arrangement of life, and little by little the furniture market was disturbed as well. The first orders for sofas have begun to arrive. On the cheapest models. At first, the west of the country made itself felt, and the capital was there as well. Moreover, the orders came from Kyiv, and the furniture was delivered to the western regions.

The company’s management understood well why people now have such purchasing priorities and that this trend will not pass soon, so they promptly reoriented production to this mass-market market trend. Later, little by little, they began to offer Ukrainians upholstered furniture of the higher price segment from the warehouse program, in particular, on promotional terms. This continues even now, because still not everything produced before the war has been sold.

Last year’s liberation successes of our army had a positive effect on the furniture market as well – it began to stabilize. Private entrepreneur Balytskyi also felt this.

– If at first the restoration of production worked almost “to zero”, then with each month the pace and volume of production and sales increased little by little. But the enemy found how to hurt us from afar. The explosive and missile-destroying flights have begun and have not stopped to this day, almost throughout the country, and this is making the market very feverish. However, at the same time, the sin of complaining about the second quarter of this year was quite productive for us. There is hope that the autumn season will traditionally be better than the summer season.

After each massive shelling of one or another large city or region, the furniture market in Ukraine “comes to its senses” for a couple of weeks, and during this time sales fall sharply. – Mr. Vasyl narrates.

– Of course, this does not stabilize the company’s work…

– We will get used to this. However, in my opinion, there is no need to strive for complete stabilization, because to stabilize means to stop. And we are trying with all our abilities and in the current conditions – sometimes critical for the company – to develop, to move forward – at least one step, half a step.

In particular, thanks to the gradual optimization of business processes with the help of Lean production mechanisms. Gradual training for the team is extremely important here. In peacetime, any changes to the established order, and the usual rhythm of work alert the workers, and in the current time, when people are psychologically stressed, it is necessary to avoid sudden changes so as not to harm the right business.

Last fall, they got used to working, and when the regular power outages began. Shifted work to non-blackout hours: from five in the morning to ten, then from 4 to 8 p.m.

– Does the company have enough work in the domestic market or are there plans to become an exporter as well?

– There are hardly any manufacturers who would not like to have export sales. Although before the war we were quite satisfied with the possibilities of the domestic market, we still had export intentions. To do this, they wanted to increase production capacity, and achieve export conditions, taking into account the requests and trends of foreign markets. The war postponed these plans for an indefinite time but did not completely erase them. Those processes of gradual reformation of the company on the basis of Lean, which I have already mentioned, are a confirmation of this.