Nova Posta, whose two depots have been significantly damaged by the Shaheds in the past three weeks, has resumed major construction projects started before the war, said Vyacheslav Klimov, co-owner of the postal operator.
“We launched our big construction projects before the war, now we have resumed them and are building very quickly,” he said at the Kiev International Economic Forum on Thursday.
Klimov assessed as a mistake the rapid downsizing of the network and staff in the first months of the war.
“Those were the hardest decisions we made then. We didn’t lay anyone off, but we were forced to suspend operations in many branches where there was no turnover or customers at the time. We later assessed that as a mistake: we squeezed harder than we needed to,” he said.
“In general, we came back very quickly. And in three to four months, the network has already taken a ‘pre-war’ look,” said the co-owner of “Novaya Posta.
According to him, attracting loans is not possible at current interest rates, so you have to rely on your own efforts.
“We asked the banks, it is impossible to work with such credit rates. I don’t know of businesses that can pull such rates… Generate your own EBITDA and build with your own money,” Klimov said.
The main focus for the company, he said, is employees.
“There are 2,500 Novopostovians on the front lines right now. We try to do as much as possible for these people,” Klimov pointed out, specifying that the company continues to pay them financial aid even after the permission to stop paying salaries, as well as provides other assistance, in particular, providing them with warm clothes.
“Nova Posta” is the largest participant of the Ukrainian logistics market: its network includes 10 thousand offices and 13 thousand post offices throughout Ukraine. The number of items in 2021 exceeded 372 million. Besides, NovaPay non-banking financial institution provides services for money transfers and e-money transactions. There were 388 million transactions in 2021.
The group also includes NovaPost Global, which is developing an international partner network to provide customers with express delivery services not only in Ukraine but also abroad. The company performs regular flights to the U.S., Europe and China and delivered 9.3 million international items in 2021.
