Oleksiy Kovalenko, co-owner of PJSC Volodymyr-Volynska Poultry Farm (Volyn region), has canceled the license for the production of chicken at this enterprise under the Epikur brand due to disagreements with another co-owner of the company, Mykhailo Dobkin.
“I am withdrawing my Epikur from shelves. Otherwise, your money will increase the threat of war for you! The question is in Mykhailo Dobkin, who recently became a shareholder of the Volodymyr-Volynska poultry farm. Before he appeared I established the production of chicken without antibiotics and any rubbish under TM Epikur under my license and with my “epi-team,” Kovalenko wrote on Facebook.
Earlier, in an interview with Forbes, he said that the brothers Mykhailo and Dmytro Dobkin inherited 33% each in the charter capital of the company after the death of their father Mark Dobkin, after which the shareholders had divided views on doing business. He said that as of the beginning of February of this year, Kovalenko and his family owned 34% of the company’s shares, while Dobkins owned 66%.
“From recent publications and appeals from investigative journalists, I know that Dobkin is no longer just about toxic rhetoric, but about criminal cooperation with the “LPR”/Russia. Not words, but deeds. So cynical in relation to Ukraine that I immediately put an end to Volodymyr-Volynska poultry farm regarding Epikur. At the same factory, Dobkin produces the usual brand – Chebaturochka. I do not influence him, here everyone can vote with their wallet,” Kovalenko said.
He said that the production of chicken meat under the Epikur brand at the poultry farm was stopped.
“With the appearance of Dobkin among the shareholders, I began to take steps not to deal with him. It was supposed to introduce Epikur technologies in other industries and transfer production and supplies. So I’m acting in this way… but I can’t wait in such a situation,” he wrote.
In addition, Kovalenko promised to take factory employees into his team, who will decide to quit or be fired by its management.
Blogger Miroslav Gai wrote on Facebook early February of this year that Mykhailo Dobkin supplies chicken to the territory of the self-proclaimed “LPR” and “DPR.”
“The former mayor takes the finances for his own information campaign from the Volodymyr-Volynska Poultry Farm, which is controlled by the prosecutor’s office. It is the one that the prosecutor’s office suspects of illegally receiving UAH 34 million in budget support. It is the one that transferred poultry for millions of U.S. dollars to the eponymous firm (Volodymyr-Volynska Trade Company) from Kharkiv, which is headed by the way, by a resident of the so-called “LPR,” the blogger wrote on the social network.
PrJSC Volodymyr-Volynska Poultry Farm is a Ukrainian-Dutch enterprise, one of the five largest producers of chicken meat in Ukraine, occupying about 6% of the market.
