In January, almost 16.7 thousand used cars imported from abroad joined the Ukrainian car fleet, which is 45% more than in the same month of 2023, Ukravtoprom reported on its telegram channel.
According to the association, almost 4.4 thousand new passenger cars were registered in January 2024 (an increase of 47%).
The largest share in the segment of used foreign cars last month, as before, belonged to gasoline cars – 46%. This is followed by diesel cars – 29%; electric cars – 16%; cars with LPG – 5%; hybrids – 4%.
Volkswagen Golf remains the leader in registrations among imported second-hand cars with 948 registrations.
The top ten most popular models also include: Renault Megane – 759 units; Skoda Octavia – 669 units; Volkswagen Passat – 599 units; Volkswagen Tiguan – 396 units; Nissan Leaf – 355 units; Audi A4 – 347 units; Audi Q5 – 334 units; Nissan Rogue – 330 units and Tesla Model 3 – 309 units.
The average age of used cars that switched to Ukrainian license plates in January is 9.8 years.
As reported, in January 2023, the demand for used foreign cars in Ukraine decreased by 2.8 times compared to January 2022 – to 11.5 thousand units, with Renault Megan leading the way with 926 cars.
For the whole of last year, registrations of such cars decreased by 45% year-on-year to 214.4 thousand units.
Maestro Hotel Management, a management company specializing in the management of premium hotel complexes, has recently faced a challenge familiar to many businesses – black PR.
Black PR is a well-known tool aimed at eliminating a competitor by dishonest means, by deteriorating their reputation. Black PR is often used to drive a competitor out of the market or prevent them from entering a market of interest. This story is about how a company faced black PR and what steps it took to protect its reputation and restore justice by defeating the slanderers.
The beginning of the PR campaign against Maestro Hotel Management
Within two weeks, competitors published two negative articles in six paid publications, using outright fabrication and false accusations to damage Maestro Hotel Management’s reputation. The competitor chose a loud and scandalous title to attract attention – “The Beachfront Scam”. The articles focused on the company’s strategic goals and were distributed in the regions where Maestro operates. All of this had one goal: to cause reputational damage and block the company’s path to a new market.
The company did not hesitate to respond. Maestro sent a complaint to the media outlets demanding that they remove the false information.
“Unfortunately, there are resources that do not adhere to information hygiene and are not interested in the accuracy of facts. They do not require any confirmation from the customer and do not verify the data themselves, although it is quite easy to refute slander with the help of open registers of legal entities. Prices for placement range from 500 to 1000 euros. There are even separate prices for scandalous articles. Accordingly, anyone and everyone can post paid-for material about anyone – it is enough to have the necessary amount of money. And nothing can be done about this state of affairs,” Eduard Rezhynsky, CEO of Maestro Hotel Management, told the editorial board.
For its part, Maestro resorted to legal methods by filing lawyer’s requests to remove the unreliable materials.
Deployment of the campaign
The competitors did not limit themselves to media publications and expanded the black PR campaign to other information platforms.
1. Popular telegram publics.
The choice of a tool for rapid dissemination of information is undoubtedly excellent – Telegram channels have an incredibly wide audience. The publications, as expected, closed the possibility of commenting on the post so that the company would not have the opportunity to defend itself.
Again, the competitors chose resources from the regions that are within the scope of Maestro Hotel Management’s interests. Appeals to the channel administrations brought different results: from a quick agreement to remove the defamatory content to extortion for removal.
2. Business communities and groups in the company’s core area of interest – hotel management and investment.
At this stage of the conflict, anonymous profiles were added to various groups that unite industry professionals. They shared links to negative articles, accompanying them with rhetorical questions such as: “Do you think this could affect the market?”. Such actions were intended to draw attention to the defamatory content, thereby casting doubt on the company’s reputation.
The company’s representatives refuted the slander where they could, but where they were absent from the discussion, competitors managed to create a negative image of Maestro in the eyes of the community.
3. The next stage of aggressive actions on the part of competitors was the initiation of targeted cyberattacks using botnets on the company’s official website and social media profiles.
However, due to the high level of information security at Maestro Hotel Management, these attempts were quickly neutralized. This incident did not have any critical consequences for the company’s operations, but it proved to be an important experience in the field of cyber defense.
4. As the conflict escalated further, competitors’ actions crossed the line of professional ethics and resulted in threats against partners.
Anonymous sources began to warn of possible negative consequences for those who decide to cooperate with Maestro Hotel Management. Such actions could have jeopardized the stability and trust in partnerships, but due to the company’s unquestionable reputation and transparency in doing business, the destabilization attempts failed.
5. The situation took a new turn when the aggression spread to the company’s staff, who began receiving threats.
For the team, such attacks were completely unexpected and caused outrage due to their groundlessness and cynicism. In response, Maestro Hotel Management held a series of outreach meetings for employees, which aimed not only to relieve unnecessary tension but also to strengthen the internal spirit and team cohesion. These actions helped maintain a positive morale among employees and confirmed the high level of corporate culture at Maestro Hotel Management.
Results of the fight against black PR
The fight against black PR has confirmed that honesty and transparency remain the best strategy. To counteract the competitors’ campaign, Maestro
Hotel Management used two key approaches.
1. The first methodology is based on a preventive approach, which includes systematic work to maintain a positive reputation and develop trusting relationships with partners and customers. Thanks to this approach, the Maestro brand has gained a high level of trust in the market.
2. The second methodology is to ignore negative attacks and focus on implementing your own PR strategy, which aims to further develop and promote the brand, regardless of competitors’ attempts to undermine its reputation. According to the company, competitors’ spending on black PR amounted to several thousand dollars.
Thanks to Maestro Hotel Management’s proactive stance and the use of legitimate legal tools to counter black PR, the company managed to neutralize all attempts at discrediting the brand – all false publications were removed. Maestro decided to refrain from retaliatory measures, choosing a strategy of adhering to the principles of fair competition, believing that excellence in doing business is the best strategy.
Maestro’s experience can be useful not only for industry representatives, but also for the wider business community, emphasizing the importance of reputation management as a never-ending process in a competitive market.
Ukraine and the People’s Republic of China have agreed on the terms of exporting Ukrainian honey to China, and now Ukrainian honey producers can supply their products to the country, the press service of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection reported.
“Thanks to the coordinated work of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as with the support of the Embassy of Ukraine in the People’s Republic of China, all stages of approval of the certificate for honey exports to China have been completed. The procedure for opening the honey market in China, which began in 2019, has been officially completed and the market is open to domestic exporters,” the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection said on Thursday.
According to the head of the service, Serhiy Tkachuk, this is the first export market that the agency opened in 2024.
“A lot of work has been done, many meetings and negotiations have been held, and the state control system in Ukraine has been audited. We plan not to stop, but to continue working to ensure the uninterrupted export of Ukrainian products in order to strengthen economic stability and increase jobs in our country,” Tkachuk emphasized.
The approved form of the health certificate for the export of honey from Ukraine to China is available on the official web portal of the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection in the section “International Cooperation” under the heading “Certificates for export from Ukraine”.
The agency also advised potential honey exporters to familiarize themselves with the guidelines for state veterinary inspectors of Ukraine and market operators who intend to export honey to China.
“The Chinese market is very promising for the export of Ukrainian products and its opening for Ukrainian honey significantly expands opportunities for domestic producers,” the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection expressed confidence.
The !Fest holding is preparing to open a new bar called Drunken Cherry in London, England.
The holding has created a profile of the new bar on Intagram, where it has posted two posts: an advertisement against the backdrop of the Tower Bridge, as well as the terms of the competition to attend the opening of the bar.
According to specialized media, the staff and team of the London bar will consist mainly of Ukrainians who speak English well and “have in-depth knowledge of cherries.”
The UK will be the tenth country to open P’yana Vyshnia establishments, and London will be the fortieth city to launch the chain. P’yana Vyshnia also operates in Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Moldova and the Baltic States.
Emotions Holding !Fest was founded in 2007. It develops a network of creative restaurants, cafes and shops in Ukraine. It is owned by Andriy Khudo, Yuriy Nazaruk and Dmitry Gerasimov.
Difficult wartime has affected both the purchasing power of Ukrainians and their behavioral habits. Due to frequent air raids, people prefer to make large-scale weekly purchases, but they prefer to see basic products of the economy segment and preferably of domestic production in their shopping carts. Toilet paper is always among the most necessary purchases. And how can you not make a mistake in choosing it?
Saving money can be expensive
Almost every consumer has experienced the disappointment of buying an ordinary roll of toilet paper at least once in their lives. A wrapper that couldn’t withstand transportation even in a hand-held shopping bag, a paper web that was not intact, pieces of waste paper left over from poor recycling, skin staining from using a colored product – and this is just a partial list of troubles that a buyer can get when purchasing a cheap product of dubious quality. But it’s not just about negative emotions from a bad purchase, as such paper can cause serious health problems for the user. Allergies, dermatitis, and even infections are the consequences of using low-quality toilet paper that require long and expensive treatment.
It is no coincidence that Obukhov 65 is a popular brand, as the Kyiv Cardboard and Paper Mill (KCPK) of the Austrian Pulp Mill Holding, where this toilet paper is manufactured, carefully monitors the safety of the most popular product.
An interesting fact: Today, about 1 million rolls of Obukhov 65 are produced daily at the plant.
The company has an integrated quality management system in place, and independent audits are conducted annually, including food safety audits, so the plant guarantees the safety of all its products. Compliance with European and national requirements is confirmed by the relevant certificates, and the waste paper processed into the base paper, the original product of the plant, undergoes 7 stages of purification.
Brand protection is a matter of honor and health
Kyiv KPK spends a lot of effort and money to protect its product from counterfeiting. After all, it is not only about the company’s reputation, but also about the safety of consumers who have been preferring the proven brand and trusting the manufacturer of Obukhiv 65 for decades.
An interesting fact: In their requests for assistance from Kyiv Cardboard and Paper Mill, charitable and public organizations, medical and educational institutions, volunteers and the military most often ask for Obukhov 65 toilet paper.
The company is responsible for ensuring that consumers receive a quality product. However, it is the buyer’s responsibility to pay attention to important details that will help him or her recognize the real Obukhov 65 from the fake:
– the wrapper is made of thin label paper with a characteristic rustle, has clear printing, without smudges of paint;
– the label indicates the manufacturer as PJSC “Kyivsky KPK”, depicts a roll with the company’s logo, and has a barcode and QR code that are easily scanned;
– the date of production must be indicated, and it differs by up to a minute on each roll. Usually, counterfeiters, if they do indicate the date, use the same time everywhere;
– the winding of the roll should be sufficiently tight, all rolls should be of the same shape, height and diameter.
Clear benefits at a reasonable price
There is a quite logical explanation for the fact that consumers of sanitary products in the economy segment prefer Obukhov 65 toilet paper, because, in addition to safety and reasonable price, they receive a number of additional benefits:
– Obukhov 65 is made of recycled paper, so by constantly buying these rolls, consumers save trees from being cut down, thus contributing directly to environmental protection and supporting the philosophy of sustainable consumption;
– by choosing the original Obukhov 65, the buyer takes care of his or her wallet, because this paper is economical and not only because of the price. A roll of Obukhov 65 lasts much longer than any other similar product;
– Obukhov 65 is a purely Ukrainian product, so by purchasing it, the consumer supports the domestic manufacturer, thus making a contribution to supporting our country’s economy, which is extremely important in wartime.
Therefore, it is hard to disagree that Obukhov 65 has maintained its reputation as a “people’s brand” for decades, and it is well deserved, as it meets not only modern requirements for sanitary products, but also the most daring expectations of its consumers, not only in Ukraine but also far beyond its borders.
Kyiv Cardboard and Paper Mill, Obukhov 65, Pulp Mill Holding
Since the beginning of the year, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has shipped more than 700 thousand cubic meters of wood, which is 60% more than in the same period in 2023, said the company’s CEO Yuriy Bolokhovets.
“After a period of stagnation, sales have revived. The stocks have decreased. The volume of contracted timber at the first quarter auctions has already exceeded 2 million cubic meters,” he wrote on Facebook and added that additional auctions will last until March.
According to him, the amount of contracts for the first quarter has already reached almost UAH 4.1 billion and surpassed the figure for unprocessed wood for the same period last year.
At the same time, Mr. Bolokhovets pointed to the rise in timber prices. Currently, its price averages UAH 2.1 thousand per cubic meter. According to the state enterprise’s experts, after the sale of firewood, it will drop to about 1.9 thousand UAH/cubic meter (in the fourth quarter of last year, the average price was 1.75 thousand UAH/cubic meter).
“Two weeks ago, I talked about the difficult situation on the market, the decline in demand due to the blocking of exports through the western borders. I said that despite all the negative forecasts, I was optimistic. Not much time has passed. The anti-crisis measures taken are working,” the CEO said.
Mr. Bolokhovets said that the company has tightened control over contract compliance. If a tree is put up for auction and purchased, the branch manager must ensure that it is harvested and shipped according to the agreed delivery schedule. The entire volume of unsold timber is immediately put up for additional bidding without delay.
“In order to avoid the accumulation of residues and loss of quality, the plan for firewood harvesting is timely adjusted in accordance with the concluded contracts,” the top manager summarized.
As reported, Ukraine launched a forestry reform in 2016. As part of it, the sale of unprocessed timber at electronic auctions has already been introduced. Since 2021, an interactive map of wood processing facilities has been operating in a test mode in a number of regions.
The industry has implemented the Forest in a Smartphone project, which contains a list of logging tickets for timber harvesting and allows you to check the legality of logging on the agency’s online map.
On June 1, 2023, Ukraine launched a pilot for the electronic issuance of logging tickets and certificates of origin of timber. In addition, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has launched a pilot project to procure timber harvesting services through the electronic platform Prozorro.
