How to grow a business during wartime. Interview with Roman Korsak
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Roman Korsak, CEO of the investment group VolWest Group, told us about one of these companies.
– Roman, please tell me how the company’s work changed during the war?
Our investment company is diversified and multi-disciplinary. We develop in the following directions:
- food retail (“Nash Kray” and SPAR chains);
- equipment (“Techno Module”);,
- and entertainment, culture and tourism “Adrenaline City”, which also houses a hostel-hotel and the Korsakiv Museum of Modern Ukrainian Art (MSUMK),
- online media (CID Media Group);
- medicine (BeHealthy network of family medicine clinics);
- IT (Script Solution);
- education (PMBA business academy and IT Step computer academy);
- production (Demydiv cannery, dairy farm and milk factory “Shatsk Moloko”)
Of course, during the war, priorities changed, so we had to adapt quickly and direct our forces to more urgent needs. Yes, part of our “Adrenaline City” center has become a shelter for migrants from all over Ukraine.
We tried to create comfortable conditions – three meals a day, soft sleeping places, we provide legal, medical and psychological support. In general, our Center for IDPs accepted over 7,000 people, some of whom are still here today.
Also, in order to relieve people emotionally, at MSUMK we organized “Art Battalion” – exhibitions, small art events and various master classes, which everyone can attend.
And currently on the common areas of the Museum and of the SPAR distribution center in Lutsk, we are creating the world’s largest painting “Cosmogony”, the author of which is our good friend and talented artist from Horlivka – Petro Antip.
The finished painting will reach 200 meters in width and 10 meters in height and will consist of 300 fragments. It is interesting that the process of its creation is a real performance, because everyone can watch it, and the employees of our distribution center became direct participants.
Already today, the fame of “Cosmogonia” is spreading around the world, that, despite the war, culture continues to actively develop in Ukraine and something beautiful and new is born – a real symbiosis between art and production.
But we believe that after the end of the war, our Museum will become one of the corners of Ukraine, where tourists and artists from all over the world will want to visit.
– One of the directions of VolWest Group’s work is grocery retail “Nash Kray” and SPAR. What is it like to be part of a global brand and did it play a role after the war in Ukraine?
We started developing the SPAR brand in Ukraine in 2017 and, in fact, very quickly realized that this is not an ordinary corporate company with strict subordination, but rather an international voluntary association of retailers and wholesalers who share common values, strategy and goals.
We are fascinated by the trust and warm relations between the partner countries. There is no multi-level bureaucracy and strict rules.
Therefore, we, as the central office of SPAR Ukraine, franchise entrepreneurs, when opening our supermarkets, have space for creativity and implementation of our own ideas.
Of course, there are criteria and European quality standards that every retail establishment of the chain must meet, but the basis and guarantee of business success is an individual approach and the soul that the owner puts into the store in his hometown.
With this franchise, you are both part of a global brand and an independent unit. As we say at SPAR: Global Yet Local.
Moreover, SPAR partner countries keep in constant contact with each other: we meet annually at the SPAR International Congress and forums in various areas of activity (marketing, logistics, HR, etc.), where we share experience and best practices.
That is, in fact, we all have access to all innovations and new solutions in global food retail. It is like a big family, a circle of friends who are always ready to help.
And we felt it personally when full-scale war broke out. One of the first people who contacted me to help was Tobias Wasmuht – CEO of SPAR International.
For the first few days, we communicated continuously almost 24 hours a day in order to organize and deliver humanitarian aid to Ukraine as soon as possible. There were also calls, letters and real actions from other partner countries.
From the first days, food collections for Ukraine were organized in SPAR supermarkets around the world, which is more than 13,000 stores in 50 countries, and the facades were decorated with Ukrainian flags.
A logistics hub was organized in Dorogusk (Poland, on the border with Ukraine), where all humanitarian aid was concentrated and further collected by our trucks: medical drugs, food products, personal hygiene products, etc.
And we are sincerely grateful to our partners for such prompt and important support! At that time, we felt an incredible level of empathy and care and once again convinced ourselves that we are part of not just an international network, but of the large SPAR family.
– This is really impressive! Roman, what happened next with this food? Did you have distribution logistics in place and did the chain’s stores work at all in the early days?
With the beginning of the war, the activities of our distribution center were divided into two directions: volunteer and commercial. Supermarkets continued to operate where possible and we had to provide them with everything they needed.
Of course, there was shock in the first hours of the invasion, but in general there was an understanding that we had to provide the local communities with basic necessities and food, so most of the network worked on schedule, and where there was no active hostilities, supermarkets did not close for a day .
Again, thanks to the flexibility of our company, decentralization, franchise partners were not dependent only on us and were able to quickly fill the shelves, including products from local manufacturers.
As for the volunteer direction, all the humanitarian aid received from our partners was divided into the following main areas: dry rations and medical supplies for the Armed Forces, products for IDPs, and food kits that were delivered to the most affected regions of Ukraine.
All this was completed directly in our distribution center by our employees and dedicated volunteers. In general, more than 430 tons of humanitarian aid passed through us, including 151 tons of animal feed (in particular, we transferred a significant part to the largest animal shelter in Ukraine, “Sirius”).
Our team collected more than 30,000 dry rations, 31,000 individual first-aid kits and about 3,000 medical shoulder bags for the Armed Forces, as well as sent almost 300 tons of rubber aid to the de-occupied territories of Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Kyiv regions.
And even today, help from abroad continues to flow in, and our volunteer VolWest Hub continues to operate. In particular, on the basis of our hub, we manufacture hemostatic tourniquets, immobilization tires and evacuation stretchers for the needs of the Armed Forces, complete first-aid kits and shoulder bags.
VolWest Group and SPAR continue to actively help our military and IDPs.
– Roman, during the war, not all businesses were able to maintain their positions. Tell me, please, what effect does the war have on the SPAR network in Ukraine?
Of course, in the early days there was no understanding of what would happen next. But today I can say with confidence that the Ukrainian SPAR network is functioning at full strength and continues active development, because we have resumed our investment projects.
In total, 87 SPAR stores operate in Ukraine today, 15 of which were opened during the active phase of the war. Moreover, we have already restored 9 damaged stores, in particular in Kharkiv, Kyiv and Buchi, and by 2023 we plan to open more than a dozen stores.
– Tell me, please, what is connected with the development of the network in such a difficult time?
I believe that the main reasons for this are a clear and understandable business model, support from us at every stage, and the resilience of Ukrainian entrepreneurs. Almost anyone can open a SPAR franchise store if they have the desire and a relatively small start-up capital (we deliberately do not charge a flat fee in order not to make the initial investment more expensive for entrepreneurs).
Our team carefully analyzes the premises for a potential establishment, provides a business plan, concept and recommendations (one of the main ones is quick payback).
We also select all the necessary equipment (at the lowest prices), do the external and internal design of the store, for which we can involve specialists from SPAR International. And we also provide national network commercial terms with suppliers, such as deferred payments, which also reduces the initial investment.
Second, because of the war, many people lost their jobs or lost their businesses. Some industries are still on hold, such as construction or entertainment. Therefore, capital is redirected to other, more crisis-resistant areas, such as food retail.
And, of course, becoming a part of the SPAR international network means finding yourself in a circle of like-minded people, people with interesting ideas and ambitious plans who are always ready to help. We have personally verified this.
So join the SPAR franchise network and become part of something bigger. SPAR – Better Together!
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