Cabinet furniture manufacturer Accord Import (Khmelnytsky) will almost triple its production capacity by building a new plant in Khmelnytsky, where it plans to create 140 jobs, according to Dmytro Kysylevsky, deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Economic Development.
“Construction of a new cabinet furniture plant has started in Khmelnytsky. The project’s investor is Accord Import. After the new plant is launched, its production capacity will increase from 420 thousand square meters to 1.2 million square meters of cabinet furniture per month. This will allow the company to enter the top 5 manufacturers of cabinet furniture in Europe,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday.
According to the MP, the amount of investment in the new project is $14 million. The launch of the first production lines is scheduled for July 2025, and the new plant should reach full capacity in September.
Kisilevsky noted that a 1.1 MW solar power plant has been built and an additional 2.8 MW is under construction to meet the electricity needs, and a gas piston plant has been purchased.
“Currently, the existing Accord Import facility is 100% utilized. About 70% of the company’s orders for cabinet furniture come from the international retail chain JYSK, which in 2025 increased the volume of orders for cabinet furniture from Ukraine by a third,” Kysylevsky wrote.
According to the company’s Facebook page, Raiffeisen Bank has extended the term of the credit line under this contract, which was granted at the end of 2023, and the term of the ECA insurance contract for Accord Import.
“Thus, Raif and ECA have supported furniture exports for 2025 to Denmark, the Netherlands, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Sweden, Germany and Spain,” the company wrote.
According to Kysylevsky, Accord Import exports 96% of its products to the EU, and the launch of the new plant will expand the geography of exports to the Middle East, South Asia, and South America.
The MP also clarified that the owners of Accord Import, the Grabar family, started out as furniture importers, while now it is Ukraine’s largest exporter of cabinetry.
He also added that to replace the imports of cellular cardboard used by the company for furniture packaging, another company is currently under construction in Khmelnytsky Oblast to produce this product.
“And the supplier of wooden boards for Accrod Import is Kronospan, which has recently launched a production line in Rivne region,” Kysylevsky added.
According to the Clarirty Project, Accord Import LLC was registered in Khmelnytskyi in August 2015. The company’s authorized capital is UAH 42.105 million, and the owners are Mykola, Ruslan, and Vadym Hrabar in equal shares.
In January-September 2024, the company increased its net profit by 23% compared to the same period in 2023 to UAH 120.6 million, with net revenue growing by 27% to UAH 1 billion 271 million.
The U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has approved a loan of up to $40 million for Astarta, Ukraine’s largest sugar producer, at the sub-council level.
“(The loan) will assist in the construction and operation of a soy protein processing plant with a projected annual capacity of about 100,000 tons and help Astarta make other investments,” DFC said on its website.
At the same time, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group announced at the end of November 2024 that it was considering a $40 million loan to Astarta and a parallel $40 million loan for the construction of a soy protein concentrate plant in Poltava region. The recipient of the funds is Astarta Agro Protein LLC, a subsidiary of Astarta Holding plc.
It was noted that IFC has already assisted the agricultural holding in conducting market research, preparing a business plan for the project, and assessing its commercial viability in order to interact with potential investors.
Initially, the IFC Board of Directors planned to consider this project on December 20, but then postponed it to February 28, 2025.
As reported, in 2024, Astarta began investing in the construction of a plant for processing soybean meal into soy protein concentrate with a capacity of 500 tons per day (about 100 thousand tons per year) in the Globinsky Industrial Complex (Poltava region). The agricultural holding will invest over EUR 76 million in equipment and technology and create 110 new jobs.
“Astarta and its structural unit Astarta Agro Protein signed the first investment agreement with the Ukrainian government to receive compensation from the state for significant investments. As part of the agreement, the government will provide the agricultural holding with a number of incentives, including exemptions from import duties on new equipment, import VAT on new equipment and income tax for up to 5 years.
IFC recalled that Astarta commissioned a soybean processing plant in Globyno in December 2013. In 2023, it processed 232 thousand tons of soybeans, 73% of which were grown by the agricultural holding, and produced 172 thousand tons of soybean meal. In the first half of 2024, the share of the plant’s own raw materials increased to 90%.
Soybean concentrate is produced by processing soybean meal with higher added value. It serves as a raw material for the production of animal feed.
In 2023, the agricultural holding reduced its net profit by 5.0% to EUR61.9 million, and its EBITDA decreased by 6.1% to EUR145.77 million, while revenue increased by 21.3% to EUR618.93 million.
American electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla plans to complete the construction of a plant in Shanghai to produce Megapack energy storage devices by the end of this year, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a statement from the company’s local office.
Construction of the plant began in late May. The plant covers an area of about 200 thousand square meters, and the total investment in this project is estimated at about 1.45 billion yuan ($202 million).
The facility will be Tesla’s first energy storage project outside the United States and the company’s second plant in Shanghai after the electric vehicle gigafactory, with total investments exceeding 50 billion yuan.
Mass production of Megapack at the new facility is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2025. At the initial stage, the production volume will be 10 thousand drives per year, which is equivalent to approximately 40 GWh of electricity.
Megapack is a 3.9 MWh battery for energy storage and power supply support, its use contributes to the stability of power grids and prevents interruptions in their operation, according to Tesla’s website. The American company already has a Megapack production plant in California with a capacity of 10 thousand units per year.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group is considering a $40 million loan and a $40 million parallel loan to Ukraine’s largest sugar producer, Astarta, for the construction of a soy protein concentrate plant in Poltava region.
“The proposed investment is an IFC A loan of up to $40 million and a parallel loan of up to $40 million to Astarta Agro Protein Ukraine LLC, a subsidiary of Astarta Holding PLC, to finance the capital expenditures for a prospective soy protein concentrate (SPC) plant in Central Ukraine,” IFC said on its website.
It is noted that IFC has already assisted the agricultural holding in conducting market research, preparing a business plan for the project, and assessing its commercial viability in order to interact with potential investors.
It is specified that the IFC Board of Directors plans to consider this project on December 20 this year.
As reported, in 2024, Astarta began investing in the construction of a plant for processing soybean meal into soy protein concentrate with a capacity of 500 tons per day (about 100 thousand tons per year) in the Globinsky Industrial Complex (Poltava region). The agricultural holding will invest over EUR76 million in equipment and technology and create 110 new jobs.
“Astarta and its structural unit Astarta Agro Protein signed the first investment agreement with the Ukrainian government to receive compensation from the state for significant investments. As part of the agreement, the government will provide the agricultural holding with a number of incentives, including exemptions from import duties on new equipment, import VAT on new equipment and income tax for up to 5 years.
IFC recalled that Astarta commissioned a soybean processing plant in Globyno in December 2013. In 2023, it processed 232 thousand tons of soybeans, 73% of which were grown by the agricultural holding, and produced 172 thousand tons of soybean meal. In the first half of 2024, the share of the plant’s own raw materials increased to 90%.
Soy concentrate is produced by processing soybean meal with higher added value. It is used as a raw material for animal feed production.
If approved, this will be IFC’s fifth investment in Astarta since 2012.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It includes six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220 thousand hectares and dairy farms with 22 thousand cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globyno (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
In 2023, the agricultural holding reduced its net profit by 5.0% to EUR 61.9 million, and its EBITDA decreased by 6.1% to EUR 145.77 million, while revenue increased by 21.3% to EUR 618.93 million.
“In January-September 2024, Astarta increased its net profit by 35.1% to EUR75.60 million, EBITDA by 12.8% to $131.56 million, with revenue up 12.6% to EUR441.46 million.
Construction of a glass plant in Kyiv region is scheduled to begin in spring 2025, said Igor Liski, owner of the EFI Group investment holding.
“This is a very complex project, we have been working on it for two years. I really hope that by the end of the year we will be able to announce the start of construction. We have already completed the entire production line. I hope that we will break ground in the spring,” Liski said at the 10th Kyiv International Economic Forum in Kyiv on Thursday.
According to him, the total investment in one production line is about EUR230 million, while about EUR100 million is export credit financing from European partners who finance their equipment.
Liski emphasized that this glass plant is a symbol of Ukraine’s recovery, so there are no plans to export it. The businessman predicts that the production of its own glass will help save the state up to EUR200 million in foreign currency earnings per year.
“We should first cover our own (needs – IF-U). Now we import on one line, after the war is over, we will need at least two lines, so we are designing a plant for two lines at once, which is another EUR200 million. Glass is a very promising product: not only technological, energy-efficient windows, but also solar panels, the automotive industry, and armored glass. Let’s eat this elephant in parts. In total, the project will cost more than a billion in 10 years, and this is only for Ukraine,” he said.
As reported, Liski plans to invest $80 million in the glass plant project.
Liski is the owner of the EFI Group investment holding (“Effective Investments”). The company’s areas of investment include healthcare and medtech, paper, food and woodworking industries, and agricultural supplies.
The company’s businesses include Feednova, an animal fats and feed additives producer, Medical Star healthcare network, Zhytomyr Cardboard Mill, Sam Ecopack, a cardboard packaging manufacturer, Forest Technology, an agricultural products supplier, Efi Agro, and Doc.ua, an online medical hub.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing Kormotech, a leading Ukrainian pet food producer, with a financing package to increase exports and geographic diversification by building a second pet food plant in Lithuania, the EBRD press service reports.
According to the release, the total cost of the Kormotech project will be EUR63 million.
The allocated financing package is a EUR40 million A/B syndicated loan, of which EUR20 million will be provided by the Dutch SDG-focused asset management fund ILX Fund.
The bank has previously provided EUR 15 million to Kormotech Group, a long-standing EBRD client, for the construction of its first plant in Lithuania, which began operations in June 2020. The bank also provided a EUR3.3 million loan to the company to replenish working capital during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
The EBRD loan is accompanied by grant financing, including a grant from the Japan-EBRD Cooperation Fund, which partially covers the costs of external lawyers. The grant funding will also partially cover the cost of new workplace equipment that will create new livelihoods for groups that need more attention, including women and people with disabilities. This component is being implemented as part of the EBRD’s new program aimed at stimulating capital investment.
The loan is provided to the Group’s holding company Vengast Investments Ltd (Cyprus) and its subsidiary in Lithuania, Kormotech UAB.
The EBRD is the largest international financial investor in Ukraine. Since the beginning of the war in 2022, the bank has provided EUR 5 billion to the Ukrainian economy and agreed with shareholders to increase capital by EUR 4 billion, which will allow it to continue lending at current levels during the war and further increase volumes during the full-scale recovery phase.
Kormotech is a global family-owned company with Ukrainian roots that has been producing cat and dog food under the Optimeal, Club 4 Paws, Woof! and Meow! brands since 2003. The company has production facilities in Ukraine and the EU, with a product range of over 650 items. Its focus on exports and geographic diversification helps it withstand the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The new project will also help Kormotech strengthen its human resources and skills development efforts in light of the current challenging situation on the Ukrainian labor market, including creating new employment and training opportunities for women, veterans, and other groups that require more attention. It will also enable Kormotech to improve energy efficiency.
In 2023, Kormotech’s turnover increased by 22.5% to $152 million from $124 million in 2022. The ratio of sales abroad and in Ukraine in tons is now 31% to 69%, respectively (in 2022 it was 28% to 72% in Ukraine).
Kormotech brands grew most dynamically in the markets of Romania (+35%), Poland (+11%) and Moldova (+11%).
Kormotech is a leader in Ukraine, one of the world’s top 50 pet food producers and one of the top 21 most dynamic pet food brands. The ultimate beneficiaries of Kormotech are Olena and Rostyslav Vovk.
