Page 26 - PET worldwide issue 01/2023

Review of the year How big was this decrease? of deep understanding of these production lines there. Choos-

lem rather than any ill will. For
We will have the statistics closer
not only diversify risks, but also
to the year’s end. These will in- matters was sometimes a prob- ing this location allowed us to
move closer to the western bor-
example, we saw a picture of an
clude numbers of closed kennels elderly woman with a small dog der to facilitate exports. As far as
and pets registered in Europe. and a 15 kg sack next to them. other companies are concerned,
Then we will be able to under- That amount of food would be which are located in Kyiv and the
stand how many out of 8 million enough for six months, but it will western regions of Ukraine, they
cats and 5 million dogs stayed in get spoiled two months after continue to operate at their sites
Ukraine. For the first time in the the sack is opened! There were so far as we know.
29 years our company has been some disputed situations with
in existence, we are seeing no very minor batches, which are Were there any major players in
market growth in tonnage. of no interest to large chains and the occupied south?
whose integrity we do not doubt.
How is humanitarian aid pro- No, but the occupation of some
vided these days? Do you have any examples of re- southern territories of Ukraine
locating the manufacture of pet affected the supply of birds and
The distribution of humanitarian food and accessories? rodents to pet shops, as very
aid depends on two parties: one many nurseries were located
takes the responsibility of ac- Our company group relocated there. The situation was similar
cepting it, and the other one al- production. But we learned that with dog kennels. Their owners
locates it from western countries. evacuation and relocation are simply saved lives by handing out
Most of Europe’s major manufac- different things, and we did both the animals. That is why there are
turers were looking for reliable during these six months. When certain difficulties now, but our
partners to distribute humani- shelling and active hostilities people persevere and find ways
tarian aid. They entrusted their broke out, our first thoughts were to keep evolving.
Ukrainian distributors with organ- about evacuating and saving our
team and expensive equipment Are there any difficulties with
“WE HAVE STABILISED OUR PROCESSES SUFFICIENTLY that could be moved quickly. We imports due to the queues at
COMPARED WITH HOW THINGS WERE LAST SPRING.“ also saved the remaining goods the border?
and raw materials — the things
that were easy to move. An average delivery time from
ising the logistics chain, and there In a couple of months, when placing an order to arrival in
could be no non-value distribution. we had a more or less clear un- Ukraine was 4-12 weeks before
Large shipments from major derstanding of the situation, we the war. At the very beginning, we
players were distributed with in- started thinking about reloca- declared force majeure and an-
credible commitment and report- tion. We asked ourselves: ‘Are we nulled all orders. Then we came
ing. We understand the whole ready to shut down the active fa- back, and many producers pri-
process very well, as we alone cility in Kharkiv that continues to oritised our orders for pet food.
have distributed 83 t of food — work despite being shelled? We Procuring accessories was more
mostly in the Kharkiv and Kyiv re- decided that we had to keep the difficult since we had not ordered
gions — and continue to provide Kharkiv facility and team. That is them for weeks and had to restart
at least 25 000 euros worth of why we adopted a view of reloca- the supply cycle. That affected the
pet products every month. tion as expanding and creating a availability of those products in
Speaking of one-time aid from new site from scratch. We chose shops. Queues at the border only
non-core European funds and Kalush, and we have already re- complicate the planning process.
volunteer organisations, the lack cruited a team and started new We allow a bit more time for ship-

26 PET worldwide 1|2023

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