The garment factories of the Textil-Contact group of companies (TK) during the war have either managed to maintain the output at the level of last year or increase their production, the company’s press service told the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
“TK Group has sewing production facilities in Chernihiv, Korosten and Lubny, which are actively working in spite of the war,” the press service said.
In particular, specializing in the tailoring of special clothing and uniforms for the Ukrainian power structures sewing factory “TK-Korosten”, starting from January 2022, monthly produced about 4 thousand items per month, as in the same months last year.
“The production has orders from government agencies, ministries and departments (AFU, State Border Service, Defense Ministry and National Guard of Ukraine),” the company notes.
At the same time, during the war the staff of the factory increased by 10%.
The press service noted that in spite of the difficulties because of the shelling of Chernihiv in the first months of the war, the TK-Style garment factory was able to resume its work in full, and the expected output by the end of 2022 is 94 thousand garments, as it was a year earlier.
At the same time, the factory, which works on give-and-take raw materials and produces men’s and women’s clothing, continues to cooperate with foreign customers.
“Much effort has been made to convince our partners to stay with us and attract new ones, to assure them that despite the war we want to and can work. The company has managed not only to maintain cooperation with our regular customers but also to start working with new ones,” the company says.
Among the customers of TK-Style factory in 2021 are Kate Spade, Wattana, De Fursac, Comma, and the list of clients in 2022 includes Isabel Marant, Faconnable, Lufthansa.
The company also added that the textile factory “TK-Domashnyi Textile – Chernigov”, which was destroyed during the enemy’s attacks and fire, after the reconstruction launched the production of fabric in June, by the end of the year reached the output of 10 thousand running meters per day.
“And the youngest enterprise – “TK-Lubny”, in January-November produced 38.88 thousand units of products – 43% more than in 2021. In Lubny we started 4 years ago with a rental house and 60 seamstresses. Now, the staff of the factory is more than 120 employees. At the end of last year we bought the room 2300 square meters in the property and in March we start reconstruction to create a full sewing factory “, – told the press service.
“TK-Lubny” works since 2019, specializes in sewing workwear and uniforms mainly for the domestic market.
The company noted that while “Textil-Contact” has not abandoned the idea of creating a clothing production in Western Ukraine, is actively working to attract investors in new projects (textile and clothing).
At the same time, the owner of the group of companies “TC” Alexander Sokolovsky among the problems faced by production enterprises of the group, which carry out, including orders of the Ministry of Defense, noted that in conditions of force majeure (power outage, alarm, etc.) they often run out of time to deliver products, and receive penalties.
“We have to collect a bunch of certificates and prove force majeure in the CCI, while such certificates are quite difficult to obtain – they are either not given, or with a long time to answer, because they are all flooded with requests. So we ask the authorities to adopt a unified resolution, eliminating the penalties in contracts with state agencies at least 35-40 days, or get rid of the need to collect certificates,” – said Sokolovsky at the round table organized by the Center for Economic Strategy with the business and government in late December.
“Textil-Contact” is one of the largest trade and production groups at the market of light industry in Ukraine, founded in 1995. At the present time represents the holding, which unites different directions of assets: wholesale and retail trade, import of fabrics, accessories and home textile, production of fabrics, threads, services of studio and dry-cleaning, and also tailoring of clothes and overalls (including military overalls).
According to Sokolovsky, who spoke at the annual Ukraine Economic Outlook conference last week, the group employs more than 1,500 people.
According to him, the group paid more than UAH 200 million in taxes in 2022 (in previous years about UAH 160-165 million).
