Epicenter K LLC (Kyiv), which is developing a network of eponymous shopping centers in Ukraine, plans to open 15 new Furniture Centers (Tsentr Mebliv) in its shopping centers in 2020, begin entering external sites and strengthen online sales. “The goal of the company is to increase its stake to 40% by the end of 2020. These plans are related to the new concept for the development of Furniture Centers. Thus, the Epicenter furniture business will significantly expand its assortment, improve client services, and will focus on turnkey solutions, in particular customers will be offered design interiors in different styles and budgets,” the company’s press service said.
According to the report, in 2019 the share of Furniture Centers in the Ukrainian market grew to 25%. During this time, ten new concept stores were opened in the Epicenter chain.
“In the new concept, much attention will be paid to inexpensive functional furniture of modern design that are interesting to young people,” Oleksandr Lukyanchenko, the director of the Tsentr Mebliv direction, said.
According to him, the company also relies on online sales.
“I’m sure that in the future online will be another growth point for us, because there we can present a much wider assortment, not limited by the length of the shelf in an offline store,” he said.
In particular, in 2019, the share of online furniture sales in the Epicenter network was 10%, the largest demand in online sales was recorded for kitchens.
Epicenter K LLC (Kyiv) is negotiating the financing of a project to expand grain storage infrastructure, purchase of agricultural machinery and grain hoppers for the amount of over EUR 100 million with the European Investment Bank (EIB).
“The Epicenter K company is in the negotiation process with the European Investment Bank regarding obtaining a loan of more than EUR 100 million, but the company has not yet made a final decision on obtaining it,” the company said.
As reported, the EIB board of director on November 14, 2019 approved a project to provide financing for the expansion of grain storage infrastructure, the acquisition of new agricultural machinery and equipment, as well as railway cars for grain transportation.
The bank expects that, thanks to the project, 1,100 additional permanent jobs will be created for new operations, 300 workers will be hired for the construction period and 15-20 local subcontracting small and medium-sized enterprises will be involved.
The EIB also indicates that this operation is covered by the political risk guarantee of the European Union for EIB loans outside the EU.
Epicenter K has been developing the agricultural business since 2016. The agricultural division of the Epicenter K group of companies cultivates over 120,000 hectares of land in Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Cherkasy, and Kyiv regions. The group also includes 20 livestock farms and six silos. Epicenter K plans to reach one million tonnes of grain storage capacity.
Epicenter K LLC (Kyiv), developing the chain of eponymous shopping centers in Ukraine, opens a shopping center in Ternopil, which will become the largest facility of the chain in the region, after its reconstruction and completion. The retailer’s press service reported on Friday that the area of the shopping center built in 2008, after the reconstruction, increased 1.5 times, to 25,000 square meters.
“Thus, the company continues the program of reconstruction of shopping centers in the chain, which began in 2015. For four years, 13 facilities have already been reformatted into innovative shopping centers. By the end of the year, plans are to open three more new and reformatted shopping centers,” the press service said.
According to the press service, in the facility, among other things, an Intersport multi-brand sports goods chain store will be opened on an area of 605 square meters. Among the largest departments are “Garden” (3,600 square meters), “Building materials” with outdoor areas (2,700 square meters), “Wood products” (2,000 square meters).
In addition to renovations of departments, improved and internal navigation, many nuances were taken into account for the convenience and comfort of customers. The facility also includes a goods distribution center of the 27.ua online store and a parking area for 650 cars.
Epicenter K LLC was established in 2003 and opened the first hypermarket in Kyiv in December of the same year.
The agricultural division of the Epicenter K Group has launched two new silos and expanded the capacities of two more silos in Vinnytsia and Khmelnytsky regions and the number of own silos grew from six to eight and their total storage capacities expanded to over 800,000 tonnes.
According to the group’s press release, two new silo complexes were launched in Vinnytsia region: Vendychany (Mohyliv-Podilsky district) with a storage capacity of 120,000 tonnes and Vapniarka (Tomashpil district) with a storage capacity of 200,000 tonnes.
In addition, the reconstruction of the Vinnytsia elevator was completed, as a result of which its storage capacity was increased to 168,000 tonnes, the capacity of the Zakupne silo complex (Khmelnytsky region) also increased by 60,000 tonnes – after reconstruction, the enterprise can dry and store 105,000 tonnes of grain.
The investments of Epicenter K in the development and reconstruction of the silo business amounted to about UAH 3 billion.
According to the group, in the current season the new and upgraded silos of the company plan to accept about 50,000 tonnes of grain from external depositors for refinement and storage.
The Epicenter K said that the construction of a new silo in Vinnytsia with a capacity of 208,000 tonnes recently began. Work on the completion of the third phase of the Zakupne silo complex with a capacity of 184,000 tonnes is underway, as well as the restructuring of two more enterprises – Pererobnyk in Kyiv region, which storage capacities will expand by 105,000 tonnes, and Nemyriv silo complex in Vinnytsia region, where grain storage volumes will increase by 104,000 tonnes.
After the implementation of all projects, the silo grain storage capacity until the end of the 2019/2020 agricultural year will expand to 1 million tonnes. The company plans by the end of the 2020/2021 agricultural year to increase the company’s grain storage capacity to 2 million tonnes.
The total cost of projects for the development and reconstruction of silo complexes is estimated at UAH 4.6 billion.
Epicenter K, which has been developing agricultural business since 2016, has launched a seed plant in Khmelnytsky region. According to the group’s press release, the Cimbria seed line (Denmark) has been installed at the plant, which allows processing 80-100 tonnes of seeds per day in compliance with the technology of calibration, disinfection and packing.
“This year we’ve begun to work independently with seed material for our own needs. For the autumn sowing campaign, the enterprise prepared more than 2,000 tonnes of wheat seeds,” head of the Epicenter K agribusiness Vasyl Moroz said.
In addition, the group is currently negotiating with several foreign producers on the cultivation and processing of seed material for their needs. In the future, the company will switch to the cultivation of seed material of grain and leguminous crops with its subsequent refinement.
Epicenter K noted that for growing seeds, the agricultural holding has its own hybridization plots with irrigation equipment and rain machines.
The agricultural sector of the Epicenter K group of companies cultivates over 120,000 hectares of land in Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Cherkasy, and Kyiv regions. The group also includes 20 livestock farms and six elevators. Epicenter K plans to reach one million tonnes of grain storage capacity.
The Epicenter K Group, developing the agricultural business since 2016, has invested UAH 6 billion in agriculture and plans to invest UAH 2.5 billion more in silos, the co-owner of the company Halyna Hereha said at the Forum of Innovative Production Facilities Development held in Bila Tserkva on Thursday.
“We have invested UAH 6 billion in the agricultural sector, and we need another UAH 2.5 billion to complete the silo project. These are not only our funds, but also loans. Last year, we started building three silos and reconstructing six. Therefore, now a big investment is unrealistic,” she told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Hereha, the company also intends to develop the dairy business. “We have animal husbandry of 20 dairy farms, but the volumes are small. In the future we plan to develop the business. There is a question of processing milk. We have not invested in animal husbandry yet, but we are discussing this,” she said.
Hereha also said that Epicenter also postponed the oilseeds processing project due to the unfavorable situation on the oilseeds market. “At present, the oil industry is declining, as producers cannot agree among themselves and simply dump the market. Therefore, we have stopped the processing process in the oil industry, but in the future we will do something interesting,” she said.
Hereha added that Epicenter is actively introducing new technologies, in particular, updating equipment and investing in the laboratory and precision farming. “In addition, we have a woodworking plant in Ivano-Frankivsk region. Now it makes a lot of products, a large percentage of them is exported, and some of them are for sale in the Epicenter [network],” she said.
