We continue on having conversations with our partners to find out, how their business has changed during the war.
And today we want to tell you about the activities of the company ASR - "Automobiles, Spare Parts, Repair" - an enterprise, which works in Kharkiv and Poltava regions. Read our very interesting and full of sense conversation with the company director - Viacheslav Ivchenko.
Roman Denisenko: Has your strategic view on the company development changed crucially, how was it before the war and how is it now? Which perspectives for development of your company and the field on the whole do you see for the near future?
Viacheslav Ivchenko: Yes, strategically the direction has really changed. Before the war we had a strategy of storing some resources, to start up something new; but now we realize that we need to live for today, because we do not know what will be tomorrow.
Many companies have chosen another way: somehow to "freeze" and suspend their activities; instead of it, we have overviewed our principles and decided that we needed to live for today, and to take steps in this direction. We plan beforehand, but not for five or ten year ahead, however, for the nearest future. Not from the point of view of some saving or not-losing, instead, of how to develop forward right now, in this difficult time. I think this is our competitive advantage; so it is really a risk, but, as the situations shows us, today it is fully justified.
Roman Denisenko: Tell us, please, what are your prior directions at the moment? What do you focus on?
Viacheslav Ivchenko: Unfortunately, these days we in Kharkiv have a necessity to maintain a lot of military vehicles. We have redirected the activity of one of our car repair shops to maintain specifically such customers. And we have organized a spare parts warehouse for them. We understand that this range of goods is different from that was before the war: these are not new pickups and jeeps these days; and for these vehicles we have reorganised our warehouse, repurchased our equipment, to repair them fast and in high quality. Of course, other directions of this car repair shop development we have suspended.
As to the shop - thanks to the fact that we received an additional net of our goods distribution, the necessity arose to think on what else we could offer our customers. And we focused on such a perspective and new direction for us as electric cars. Today at warehouse we have battery chargers, adapters, power strips and all, connected to power networks for electric cars. This is our new direction we started half a year ago, and we already work very actively on it. Also we have reviewed the statics on selling electrics in China, as well as the world statistics on this direction. We see that the BYD Company is breaking forward with huge steps, so we have organized a warehouse with spare parts for BYD electric models.
We keep a finger on the pulse, waiting for blackouts: we understand that there will be not enough energy. So all our clients, all people on the whole, we sincerely recommend to spare electro energy and switch to electro energy saving systems.
Roman Denisenko: It would be great to speak about the convenience of Omega services for your company.
In particular, what can you tell about our delivery service: we would be pleased to hear an honest feed-back on its quality and convenience for you?
Viacheslav Ivchenko: It is quite convenient, we use your deliveries usually, and there has not been any problematic issue on them. The number of supplies per day is satisfying, and the speed is generally too. Actually, Omega is on the same level with others, because these days all try to provide more supplying per day, as well as speed in item`s leaving a warehouse and customer`s receiving at a place. Here the competition is so cruel. All are approximately at the same level, but all have a high level enough.
Roman Denisenko: Do you use our EGF service, in particular, applying such programmes for the electronic document flow as M.E.Doc, SOTA, Vchasno? Does it simplify the processes of receiving and sharing documents in the company for you?
Viacheslav Ivchenko: Of course, yes, we live in the 21st century, so all papers are already in the past. I know that our accountants use both Vchasno and M.E.Doc, and also one additional application for electronic documents signing. We have been using them quite long; and if you send us documents in electronic form, then we will surely sign them in the same way online.
Roman Denisenko: How convenient is our service of goods returning for you? How often in general do you have to make returning, and what is the most important for you in this process?
Viacheslav Ivchenko: Of course, we have made much returning for all these years of working with you as a supplier. This is the responsibility of appropriate workers at warehouse; but the thing I know for sure, that I personally liked the most, that you have an option to make a declaration on returning. So by this it is possible to record and stop recording of the term, which disallows returning of an item after 14 days of its purchasing.
The turnover is so big, that if some spare part lies at my warehouse, it is not essential for me at all. Essential is that I need to record in time, that I want to make a returning, and that my request is recorded as well. This is, for me, a huge advantage of your company, in contrast to other suppliers, which do not have such a function.
Roman Denisenko: These days we all are much thankful to the Armed Forces for the ability to live and work. Omega directly takes part in helping our army, providing cars and organizing regular fundraisings for army needs. Can you tell us, please, maybe you and your team also do some volunteering? If yes, please, tell about it in detail.
Viacheslav Ivchenko: All military men addressing us receive a huge discount and services out of turn. Also, when we have an opportunity, a great number of vehicles we maintain free of charge at all. Moreover, as to myself and my partners - Anatolii Dvornikov and Oleksandr Videnov - we are now in a charitable association "Ukraine of My Dream", which is responsible for some directions on helping and volunteering. Starting with education and support for children with disabilities from Bogodukhiv orphanage. Under the supervision of Emmaus and with the help of Umex we help children with disabilities from Bogodukhiv orphanage.
Also we help two orphaned children, who are now in the orphanage, but who really want to return to their grandma at home. We will rebuild her house, to create normal conditions for their return.
Additionally, a book about our Ukraine is being written these days, and we have foreign partners to help; we want to write true and honest history of Ukraine in a book form. We plan to distribute it abroad, as people there understand Ukraine not as it is for real. Unfortunately, there are a lot of writings, created by Russians, and they show Ukraine in the opposite direction as to it truly is. So the information front line is also a very important direction, which we actively take part in.
Roman Denisenko: Which achievements of your company for last year are you mostly proud of?
Viacheslav Ivchenko: For this year we have opened two branches for our shop in Ukraine - in Poltava and Kremenchuk. Also we have widened our warehouse areas in Kharkiv, and continued building the next car repair shop.
We take risks, we understand, in which risk zone we are now, but we have decided to live for today. I am proud, first of all, of the fact that we have not stopped our work for a moment, even during the war beginning period. We worked every day, and in those first times, when it was necessary to help, we helped with what we can - we helped our military men, territory defence. Accumulators, liquids, oils, filters - all went to the front line.
Another our achievement is, I think, the fact that we have not been afraid and created new workplaces in that time, when all the country was disoriented. Many people were displaced, people did not know what to do, how to earn money. So we decided - to work, to develop, whenever it was risky, and to create new workplaces. It has happened, and examples are Poltava and Kremenchuk branches. The most important is to believe in the Victory, believe in the Armed Forces, in the Territory Defence and other Forces. We should not be scared, we should live and develop.
Roman Denisenko: Thank you for your paid attention! It was very interesting! So long!