NP Logistic, part of the Nova Poshta Group, has signed a contract on the provision of logistic services to the Swedish furniture and home accessories retailer IKEA, planning to open its first store in Ukraine in 2019.
The press service of Nova Poshta reported on Wednesday that the company will provide storage and order completion services for the first IKEA city store in Kyiv.
“We are glad that IKEA selected us. This would allow uniting prime standards of fulfillment and delivery with the furniture retail,” the co-owner of Nova Poshta, Viacheslav Klymov, said.
NP Logistic’s core business is fulfillment: storage of goods at warehouses, online order completion and delivering them to customers.
As reported, in September 2018, IKEA officially announced that the group plans to open a first city store in Ukraine in 2019 in the Ocean Mall in Kyiv.
The development of the network in Ukraine will be under the aegis of IKEA Southeast Europe, which is part of the IKEA Group (Ingka Holding B.V.). The company is engaged in retail business IKEA in Croatia, Serbia, Romania and Slovenia.
Swedish IKEA is the world’s largest retail chains for furniture and household goods with 367 stores on 30 markets.
Nova Poshta was founded in 2001. Its network has more than 2,350 depots and a fleet of more than 3,600 trucks. In 2017, more than 145 million items were delivered.
The Nova Poshta Group predicts that in 2018, the group would increase the number of deliveries to 170 million, which is 16.6% more than last year, Nova Poshta Director Oleksandr Bulba has said.
“The [upward] trend continues in 2018: we expect a 15-20% increase in the eight months ending August this year. We delivered 108 million parcels (for comparison, in the eight months of 2017, 90 million.) Our plan for this year is about 170 million parcels,” he told Interfax-Ukraine.
The press service of the group told Interfax-Ukraine that this year Nova Poshta intends to open up to 600 new points of presence of different formats.
As reported, Nova Poshta in January-June 2018 delivered 78 million items, which is 21% more than in the same period in 2017.
Nova Poshta was founded in 2001. Its network has more than 2,350 depots and a fleet of more than 3,600 trucks. In 2017, more than 145 million items were delivered.
The Nova Poshta Group (Kyiv), operating in the express delivery segment, opened 49 new depots in August 2018.
According to a company press release, the total number of depots across the country grew to 2,440.
“In August, 49 depots were opened: 13 mini departments accepting parcels weighing up to 15 kg, 23 depots for sending parcels weighing up to 30 kg, and 13 depots unlimited by weight,” the company said.
New branches appeared in Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Kharkiv and other large cities, as well as in smaller towns – in Nadvirna, Bakhmut, Enerhodar, Ichnia, Baturin and others.
In addition, the company has changed the locations of 18 already operating branches to more convenient ones in different cities of Ukraine in order to reduce the load on the branches.
Nova Poshta also continued its partnership with retail supermarket networks.
The Auchan Ukraine network has four pick-up and drop-off points in Kyiv and it is planned to expand into all 23 stores.
Nova Poshta opens new depots in the Leroy Merlin network in Kyiv; the Lotok network has more than 10 pick-up and drop-off points around the city.
According to the company’s report, in January-July 2018, Nova Poshta customers in the e-commerce market sent 19.2 million items, which is almost 27% more than in the same period of 2017.
Nova Poshta (Kyiv), the leader of express delivery in Ukraine, in partnership with private co-investors is implementing a project on construction of a new logistic terminal of class A with gross area of 3,200 square meters in Chervonohrad (Lviv region).
“The Nova Poshta company gave us all terms of reference and requirements [to the facility], and we designed the facility and are building it. Then we will lease the premises to Nova Poshta. Decoration works inside the warehouse are being done. I think that in two or three months the facility will be launched,” the head and co-investor in the project Nazariy Bilobran told Interfax-Ukraine.
He said that the new warehouse of Nova Poshta will be located on two parcels of 0.8 ha (0.5 and 0.3 has) at 1 and 1B, Kopernik Street in Chervonohrad.
“The logistic terminal will be designed for reloading goods. There will also be a Nova Poshta branch, a client zone. This will be the third warehouse in Lviv region that will cover the northern part and probably part of Volyn region. Local business is carrying out all works to build the facility, taxes will be paid to the city budget,” Bilobran said.
According to Bilobran, this facility will become the second logistic terminal realized for Nova Poshta: in 2017 a similar project was constructed in Stryi (Lviv region).
Nova Poshta told Interfax-Ukraine that the company plans to build new terminals in partnership with developers.
“This year, Nova Posta is building a Khmelnytsky terminal, for which the EBRD has provided a loan. Other terminals will be built in partnership with developers, in particular, they have already begun to build in Lviv region and we are now in the process of negotiations with developers in Kharkiv,” the press service said.
The European Bank for Recontruction and Development (EBRD) would provide a loan to Nova Poshta, the leader in express delivry in Ukraine, for its development.
The two sides of the loan agreement confirmed their plans. The sum of the loan is not disclosed. The EBRD has not yet posted information about the loan on its website. According to the rules of the bank, it can decide not to publish information about a loan which is smaller than $20 million. The details of the agreement and development plans will be announced at a joint press conference on April 4, 2018. Nova Poshta, founded in 2001, is the leader in the local delivery market. The company’s network consists of more than 2,300 depots. In 2017, Nova Poshta delivered more than 145 million items.
The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine (PGO) did not reveal any violations during the searches at the offices of Nova Poshta on March 16, Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko assured Nova Poshta co-owner Viacheslav Klimov. “The funds of customers of Post Finance [the Forpost system] seized during the search will be returned. The legal service of the Nova Poshta group of companies will answer all questions of the Prosecutor General’s Office and will provide all the necessary materials that will allow making a lawful decision on the case,” the group wrote on Facebook.
At the same time, it notes the prosecutor general expressed concern about the use of carriers in schemes for transportation of illegal goods. “The parties agreed to develop a joint action plan to prevent possible cases of transportation of illegal goods,” Nova Poshta stated.
PGO Speaker Andriy Lysenko, in turn, wrote on Facebook that during a meeting of Yuriy Lutsenko and Viacheslav Klimov, the parties expressed interest in the lawful organization of work of the leader of the Ukrainian express delivery market. “The prosecutor general and the Nova Poshta representative agreed on cooperation to improve the company’s work, minimize the risks of carrying prohibited goods and prevent possible illegal financial services in order to evade taxation. For this the working meetings of Nova Poshta lawyers and financiers with the representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office will be held, as well as control purchases of goods and services will be made,” the speaker said.
He also said that Lutsenko informed Klimov about the numerous facts of violations, which were revealed in work of the Nova Poshta branches. In particular, this concerned the transfer of non-excise alcoholic drinks and narcotic substances in large quantities. The investigators also received information from the Interior Ministry regarding possible tax evasion in the course of money transfers.
As reported, with reference to Lutsenko’s press secretary Larysa Sarhan, the Prosecutor General’s Office suspects officials of the companies affiliated with Nova Poshta LLC of non-payment of taxes in especially large amounts, and therefore on March 16 it conducted searches in the central office in Kyiv and other offices of the company in Poltava, Odesa, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Lviv.
Later it became known that Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman instructed the Ministry of Justice, the Business Ombudsman Council, the Ukraine Investment Promotion Office to analyze the cases of searches at the enterprises and prepare a meeting of the special commission formed in the framework of monitoring the implementation of the law on business protection “stop masks-show.”
