Article
EVA during the War
Destroyed stores and supply chains, lack of goods, danger to employees, drop in the number of financially sustainable people – those are the realities that the Ukrainian retail business has faced as a result of the war. Nonetheless, the business continues operating, finds ways to its optimization, and resumes gradually the work of sales points ensuring that the Ukrainians have the most essential things.
Ruslan Shostak, Co-owner of EVA Drogerie Chain and Varus Supermarkets, has told about losses of the Company in the early weeks of the full-scale invasion, as well as logistics, domestic manufacturers, and personnel management.
EVA store chain is the national network of beauty and health stores. It has 1,120 branded stores throughout Ukraine and own Internet EVA.UA store. The Company employs about 13 thousand persons.
On Losses during the War
From the onset of the full-scale invasion, 65 stores of the chain were ruined, in particular, in Mariupol, Kharkiv, Volnovakha, cities of Kyivska Region, etc. About 70 stores are located in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
According to Shostak, approximately 900 stores of the chain continue operating.
“In the regions deprived of retail business and where logistics chains are damaged, we cannot but observe a real social shock among people. Therefore, we have set as the main task to ensure that our business continue functioning,” says he.
On Logistics
Supply chains have experienced significant changes from the beginning of the hostilities.
The Company has three distribution centers – in Dnipro, Brovary, and Lviv. During the first weeks from the beginning of the invasion, the business was forced to evacuate quickly the commodities from the Brovary center located close to Kyiv. At the moment, the center located in Lviv suffers from being overloaded.
“We happen to continuously resolve the complicated issues of logistics chains,” says Shostak.
The Company has also encountered supply problems connected with the delivery of goods from manufacturers, since EVA has also international brands in its line of products. However, thanks to the accumulated stock of products, the business succeeded in resolving the issue of the lack of commodities in stores.
During the early months of the war, the Company had to refuse from special offers and campaigns for customers, nevertheless, it has gradually returned to the price formats that are familiar to our consumers. In the long run, EVA is intending to present on the shelves of its stores more goods of domestic manufacturers in order to be less dependent on imports.
On Personnel
“There were days when we could not open certain stores because of the lack of personnel. Some people stayed in shock, others were forced to leave immediately,” says Shostak.
However, the Company has succeeded in overcoming the personnel crisis and supporting the employees both financially and morally by having organized groups of psychological support.
On Consumer Sentiment of Ukrainians
The most popular goods purchased by consumers are essential commodities, in particular, hygienic products. Besides, cosmetic and health care goods continue to be popular among Ukrainian women, but have moved to the economical segment.
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