Home Essentials, a world leader in production and rental of furniture and interior items, is launching production of furniture and mattresses in Kremenets (Ternopil region), head of the Ternopil Region Investment Office Vladimir Vasilevsky told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, all registration activities have already been completed and a site has been chosen for the production location.
“Kremenets community received a powerful American investor – LLC “Home Essentials Ukraine”. The project enters the stage of implementation and begins to live its own life – hiring employees, importing production equipment and forming a circle of suppliers,” he said.
According to Vasilevskyy, already in the second quarter of 2023 the shipment of products will begin. In the first phase of the project creates 50-60 jobs, by the end of 2023, 300 jobs will be created.
“The investor is transferring part of the back office operational processes from the headquarters in Hong Kong to Ukraine and managers and creatives – logisticians, marketers, etc. – will be employed here,” he added.
Mr. Vasilevsky estimates that, by analogy with similar factories in Ukraine, the production in Kremenets will give a turnover of about $12-15 million, “in the first months of work it is possible to export products at $ 0.5-1 million per month,” – he said.
We are planning to start exporting to Spain, Portugal, Italy and France, and in the second quarter of 2023 to most of the EU countries.
For the production start, on equipment and circulating assets, in the first half of 2023 will be about $ 1 million of investments, in the 2-3rd quarter – up to $ 5 million.
Oksana Donska, a board member of the Ukrainian Association of Furniture Manufacturers (UAM) and coordinator of furniture cluster development, said in a comment for Interfax-Ukraine that this investor is an example of active interest of foreign companies to our market and interest of local authorities.
“I met a representative of Home Essentials at an international exhibition, where UAM represented the products of Ukrainian furniture makers. It was a happy accident for him. Next we met at the buzzer. I gave him an analysis of the domestic market, data on the specifics of exports, told him about the geographical location of production in Ukraine. In four months, the Ternopil Region Investment Office team was able to secure the entry of the American investor,” Donska said.
Home Essentials is a world leader in manufacturing and renting out furniture and interior furnishings. The head office (headquarters) is in Hong Kong. The European office is in Madrid. The company operates in more than 26 countries.
The Koudijs Group of Companies (Koudijs, the Netherlands, a subsidiary of the Dutch Royal De Heus) has launched a plant for manufacturing mineral and vitamin supplements for agricultural animals in the village of Khylchytsi (Lviv region) with an estimated production capacity of 1,500 tonnes of finished products per month, investments in the project amounted to EUR 7.8 million, according to a posting of the website of the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food.
“The new plant is eight floors of new specialized equipment from the world’s leading companies, automated control systems, an automatic packaging line and robotic technology,” the ministry said.
According to the ministry, the new plant in Ukraine is part of the Koudijs group of companies – an international producer of animal feed, concentrates and premixes, which has more than 90 plants in 60 countries of the world.
The Ukrainian branch of Koudijs Ukraine LLC, in 2020, increased its net profit 1.4 times compared to 2019, to UAH 38.46 million, revenue 1.6 times, to UAH 593 million.
According to the unified public register of legal entities and sole proprietors, the ultimate beneficiaries of Koudijs Ukraine LLC are Hendrik Anthony de Hois (the Netherlands, owns 51% in the charter capital of the company) and Fedir Shopsky (49%).
The company’s website states that the plant’s capacity at the level of 1,500 tonnes of finished products is able to fully meet the needs of Ukrainian livestock and poultry farms. The enterprise will produce mineral and vitamin supplements for the domestic market, but they also could be exported in the future.
“In order for the economy in the state to develop, the authorities must create the necessary conditions for this. Today, we are building roads, improving infrastructure, building schools and sports grounds and opening new powerful enterprises. For example, yesterday, the first innovative seed-breeding center in Western Ukraine was launched in the region, and today we are opening a modern plant for the production of feed,” the Ministry of Agrarian Policy said, citing Head of the Lviv Regional State Administration Maksym Kozytsky.
Ukrainian automobile manufacturers in January-February 2020 produced 1,077 vehicles, which is 10.8% less than a year ago, the Ukrautoprom association has reported.
According to preliminary data from the association, passenger car production was 12.5% less than a year ago, reaching 933 cars. (all made at Eurocar), 2% more buses were made- 134 units, and commercial vehicles (excluding AvtoKrAZ, which statistics are not provided) at the level of the previous year – 10 units (all were manufactured at Cherkasy Bus Plant).
Most of the buses are still produced by Cherkasy Bus Plant – 60 units were produced in January-February (10 units less than in two months of 2019), Chernihiv Automobile Plant of Etalon Corporation made 30 units compared with 35 a year ago.
Chasiv Yar Buses plant (Donetsk region) significantly accelerated the pace of production of Ruta buses: to 25 units compared to six in January-February-2019; Bogdan Corporation produced two buses less – 10 units, and Ukravto Corporation made 9 buses (one less).
The acceleration in the decline in vehicle production in the first two months was due to the February result – only 225 vehicles were manufactured in the past month, which is 28% less than in February last year and 73.7% less than in January 2020.
Only one plant is still reporting on the production of passenger cars – Eurocar, where 146 cars were assembled last month (39% less than in February 2019 and 81.5% less than in January 2020).
Only two commercial vehicles were produced in February at the Cherkasy Bus Plant compared with five units a year earlier.
The February manufacturing of buses increased by 6 units, to 77 buses, including 30 units made by Cherkasy Bus, 20 units produced at the Chernihiv Automobile Plant, 12 buses made at Chasiv Yar Buses. Bogdan Corporation reported on 10 buses made, and five were produced at ZAZ.
