UAFM in Faces: Svitlana Shabalina, owner of DOROS, a Kyiv-based company, told us how the company is coping with the challenges it faces in this difficult time.

"By our presence at furniture forums, we must constantly demonstrate our reliability, prospects, compliance with industry trends, technological and fashion trends."

Although our army managed to drive the enemy away from the capital fairly quickly, and the factory resumed furniture production after a few weeks of downtime, gathering the remnants of the team, the management of DOROS, according to its owner Svitlana Shabalina, had an objective understanding that the domestic market would not return to pre-war levels soon. So the loss of domestic market opportunities had to be compensated for by increasing sales abroad. That's why we took the first opportunity that arose in this difficult time to look for new customers outside the country. And it was a profitable opportunity at that: The Ukrainian Association of Furniture Manufacturers, despite the restrictions imposed by martial law, formed a collective national stand for its members to participate in this format at the international Poznan exhibition on very favourable organisational and financial terms thanks to the assistance of the relevant government agencies and the US donor programme. And the company's management did not waste this chance.
It should be noted that DOROS is one of the domestic furniture companies with considerable export experience, which has long been selling its products to almost all regions of the world. However, due to the war, these sales have also significantly dropped, Svitlana does not hide it. First of all, because of logistical difficulties with sea routes. At the beginning of the war, there was no shipping at all, but later other sea routes were found. But they are longer and therefore more expensive. For a long time, there was a need to transship goods. Some customers in Asia and the Middle East and the United States suspended purchases due to supply risks and increased logistics costs, while those with whom we had just started trading decided to postpone it until better times. This is also the reason why the company has to look for new foreign customers.

However, as the executive noted, it is important for the company not to stop exhibiting not only to expand its customer base, but also to improve its image. "We have to constantly demonstrate our reliability, prospects, compliance with industry trends, technological and fashion trends to those customers with whom we have been working for many years by our presence at furniture forums and demonstrating product innovations and our production capabilities. This is especially necessary in the current situation, so that current and potential customers do not lose confidence in the company." - Svitlana shares her thoughts.

          In the same way and with the same purpose, they took part in this year's international exhibition in Cologne, Germany, which was quite effective.

Meanwhile, the domestic market also began to recover from the stress of the first weeks of the war, so by the end of last year, DOROS had achieved a good result - for wartime - of seventy percent of pre-war production.

- In what ways did the war make it impossible or suspend the company's development?

- I wouldn't say "made it impossible", because we are not standing still in such a difficult time for the country and business, as evidenced by the same exhibition activity, but yes, we have suspended it. We had plans to expand significantly, but we failed. And this year we will not be able to do so due to a lack of resources.

Last year, in addition to the staff shortage, there was a power shortage, when massive power cuts began. This year, so far, there are no problems with electricity, but the staff shortage is still as noticeable. The war has taken away our key specialists, primarily men (we believe it's temporary), and it is very difficult to find suitable replacements. And it is almost impossible to find experienced furniture makers among those looking for work today - we have to train them from the existing staff, which takes time, and a newcomer cannot immediately acquire the same skills and experience as his predecessor.

- Nevertheless, the company has not lost its viability, but also the values that have always made it a leader in the industry...

- Yes, although maintaining our current market position requires enormous efforts. First of all, reform efforts. The need for optimisation - both in production and management divisions - became apparent in the circumstances in which the company found itself when the war broke out. And we managed to optimise to a large extent in a fairly short time, which yielded the desired result. For example, we managed to strengthen our management team, which helped stabilise sales. This is also due to the improved use of online mechanisms for promoting and selling products, such as the company's website and trading platforms, as well as an increase in our presence on popular and effective social media.

We were able to create and launch new products that expanded our range. Moreover, we have mastered the production of types of furniture that we did not have in our range before. For example, kitchen furniture. We have also made some types of furniture stylistically and functionally compatible, so that the buyer can combine them with furniture sets at his or her discretion and taste, thereby making complex purchases. All of this together gives us the opportunity to face the challenges we have been facing for a year and a half and will continue to face until the war is over. Of course, this is our victory.