From the Thousand Of Lakes Country: how Finnish innovations reduce logistics costs of Ukrainian retailers

Igor Ciriс, the regional sales manager of Hartwall international logistics company, tells about what the group can offer to Ukrainian retailers, where and how costs can be reduced, and how to increase the efficiency of the supply chain.

Wednesday, 16th of October 2019, Ramada Encore Kyiv, 103, Stolychne Shose, Kyiv – let’s maximize the efficiency of your Supply Chain and save money in your Logistics. We invite Logistics Directors and Financial Directors to visit workshop «RAU logistic day». Special guest speakers – from Varus Supermarket and Fozzy Group Retail.

Prior to the event, RAU asked K.Hartwall representatives what exactly the company offers to the Ukrainian market, for how long it has been working on it, which companies it has been cooperating with by now, which ones it intends to work with in the future, and what it aims to achieve in the near future. Igor Ciric, the regional sales manager of K.Hartwall international logistics company, has answered the editorial office questions.

–  Tell us about your group business: what main directions are you developing?

– K. Hartwall is a Finnish, family-owned company founded in 1932 in Söderkulla, Finland. Over the years we have generated in-depth knowledge of logistics processes and their financial and environmental impacts. Today we bring logistics efficiency by delivering innovative logistics solutions, including returnable load carriers and related services in three main industries: Retail, Postal and Automotive.

Now we have over 1500 satisfied customers in more than 65 countries from South America to Australia.

At K. Hartwall we work closely with our customers around the world. We are able to produce measurable benefits through improved logistics flow.

Thanks to its efficient global delivery capability K. Hartwall has the flexibility to support its customers independently of the volumes or the location.

– Are you already represented in Ukraine? If so, how long?

–  Yes, we have been active in Ukraine for more than 8 years.

– How is Ukraine attractive for you, as an international company?

– Ukraine is a very attractive market for us therefore we are very focused on it. I have to say that it offers a very big potential and we want to position ourselves as a Key Partner to all companies interested in Logistic innovations, sustainability and cost savings in their Supply Chain. The Seminar we will have in Kiev on 16^th of October is a good opportunity to tell about us and let the participants to feel and touch our products.

– What business directions do you intend to develop in our country?

– At the start it is Retail since a big country like Ukraine (45 million inhabitants) has a lot of retailers, domestic and international. After that for sure it is Postal since this area is developing really fast globally.

– What exactly can you offer Ukrainian sphere retail companies? What kind of innovations, advanced experience, new ideas?

– We can offer a large variety of our products but for retailers the most interesting are 2-sided, 3-sided, 4-sided Roll Containers (A-Frame Compactainer or Foldia).

Their time is money. Most of the savings in Logistics are in the last 50 meters of the delivery so in order to significantly cut down handling time in stores, increase Logistic efficiency and get rid of the waste in your daily time operations we offer our solutions (Roll Containers, Dollies, SmartCube etc.). Roll Containers and dollies are a commonly used equipment to use in Western and Nordic countries. In this Region, East and Central Europe, it is also going in this direction but still have a lot of space for improvement.

– Do you develop a business in Ukraine on your own or in partnership with a local partner?

– Both. So we are developing business on our own but also we have partner to support us.

After all, Ukraine is a very big market and support in terms of services and other services is needed at this moment.

– Which companies have you already established cooperation with? Who are you interested in? What can you offer potential customers new and unique?

– K.Hartwall is working with Fozzy group, Varus Supermarkets, Velika Kyshenya, Auchan and have at the moment discussion about potential cooperation with several other retailers.

We are interested in cooperation with all retailers in Ukraine, also in the Do It Yourself industry since we had developed very interesting and cost saving solution such as the SmartCube and SmartCube Jumbo for this kind of companies.

Also, for soft drinks and beverage customers we offer our Dollies (1/4 size pallet, 1/8 size pallet) with plastic trays in which you can put PET bottles, Tetra Pack, cans, glass bottles etc. and deliver them on our adaptor pallets

We will have these solutions at our Seminar so everybody will have a chance to see and touch them.

These solutions are new on this market but I think in the next couple of years they will be part of the standard equipment.

– How do you assess the competition’ level in Ukraine in your sphere? Who do you see yours main competitors and how do you intend to compete with them?

– We are aware that in every business there is competition which is good and a normal thing.

You have in this business variety of products and prices of course. Thing that we point out to our customers is quality which is very important. The one thing that they should pay attention to is Total Cost of Ownership.

The most important thing is how much time you can use the products. Our products with normal handling can last from 7-12 years.

In the long run, when you divide the price with the total years of using our products, we know that we are among the cheaper ones. Visiting our customers we found at one of them, one Roll Container which was more than 20 years old. That is how we differ from competition.

Our opinion is that in Ukraine our partners recognized this.

– What Ukrainian logistics sphere’ problems do you already see, and how can it be solved?

– We can see that a lot of time has been spent in the handling of wooden pallets, stretch foil, etc.

Now, for example, companies who are using wooden pallets, are wasting a lot of time in replenishment, using shopping trollies and going back to store warehouse several time in their shift instead of dealing with their customers.

As we all know in our Region, a lot of people are moving to Western countries and everybody is facing labor shortage, so now the focus is on how to minimize the time spending in every day operations in Logistics and stores. That is the moment where we can offer not only our solutions to help you save the time and money, yet also our expertise, support and advices on what can be done in order to cut down the costs .

– How do you see your Ukrainian business in three to five years?

– We would like that K.Hartwall become a well-known name on the Ukrainian market and true Key Partner whom they can expect maximal support, good quality and honest cooperation.

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October, 16, Kyiv – workshop «RAU LOGISTIC DAY»