Seo Novus Mark Petkevich: Our ambitions - to become a national leader after the war
SEO Novus Mark Petkevich, who was ranking in the best toplers of the country, spoke about the path of development of retailer, the principles that guided the company in doing business, the role of a team and post -war plans. Novus has been working on the Ukrainian market since 2009 and is a member of the Lithuanian BT Invest Group, which is a majority shareholder of Raymondas Tumenas.
At one time, Raymondas Tumenas and his companion Igor Bezub owned the largest juice manufacturer, Sandora in the country. After the sale of Sandora in 2007, the BT Invest was established to management assets, which created a retail trade company. We started with the purchase of small regional networks with retail space up to 1000 square meters. m. , And subsequently switched to multi -format mode (from mini to hypermarkets) under the Novus brand.
In 2020, the Billa network with 35 shops in the capital and the region was purchased. In total, since 2009, BT Invest has invested about $ 400 million in the Ukrainian economy. Novus is currently in the five leaders of the Ukrainian product retail. The Great War of the War caused almost $ 49 million.
We work mainly in Kyiv and Kyiv region, so at the beginning of a full -scale invasion, shops in the suburbs of the capital were most affected: two in Bucha and three in Irpen, with one of the shops in Bucha was almost destroyed, only a frame remained. The cold warehouse in Brovary was broken, as well as seriously injured the central office of the company and our store, which were located in the Retroville shopping mall, - they hit the Russian rocket.
During 2022, the damaged stores were completely restored and continue to function, providing the population with the necessary goods. In addition to material losses, we also lost human resources, because many of our employees went abroad with children and did not return, and more than 300 workers went to serve to the Armed Forces. Despite the loss and forced investments in the restoration of assets, the company continues to actively develop business.
Last year, we opened two new NOVUS, two "horses" and two markets, and sales increased by 22% compared to 2022. About the team like other companies, we feel a personnel hunger, especially in "male" specialties. In general, the dynamics of the labor market in the retail repeats the Ukrainian situation, with the difference that the failure at the beginning of the invasion was not so strong, and the recovery was more stable and smooth with respect to the entire market.
We see that the requirements for the employer during the war have shifted to meet purely material needs to the "human -centric" approach. Sectors trust companies more who understand their new needs, take care of them, in particular, they will support social guarantees, provide flexible graphics and more.
Due to changes in the labor market, we began to systematically review the existing categories of workers and attract new ones, but strategically adhere to the practice of "growing" specialists from our own fund, on a permanent basis we teach and develop staff. It is significant that most of our executives have risen their career steps in Novus. Last year, 61% of all administrative positions were closed by internal candidates.
With regard to vacancies with specific or new functionality, you either have to overpay or carry foreign experts. Competition market is developing very quickly, even in wartime. Each network has its own secrets of success, in particular, regarding the presented assortment or ways of attracting buyers. From the very beginning, we laid the principles of transparent and responsible business, creating comfortable working conditions with partners and clients.
We pay a lot of attention to high levels of service and customer care. In recent years, we have been developing a digital service, in particular, we have already operated our own delivery of products via Novus. online, a digital application is working-this creates additional comfort for online and offline purchases.
Novus has become a real sign of stability in crisis, but the drivers of our development are the speed in making and implementation of decisions, flexibility and general rule "do not shake", work "as necessary" in all areas. This applies to the entire team, from cashier to CEO.
The range of changes in the range dictated by the needs of buyers: since the beginning of the war, the need for available products of daily demand has increased significantly, so we have increased this range, but left a sufficient choice in other segments. We are guided by the logic of buyers: a client who has previously bought red fish is unlikely to replace it with cereals, he will continue to buy fish, but instead of expensive varieties he will choose more accessible, hake or pollock.
So we have to offer such a buyer instead of red chilled fish high quality frozen. But red chilled should remain, as some of the customers are still ready to buy it. I think that to compete at any time-before the war, during or after it-we have old proven tools: convenience of shopping, hygiene, assortment, service and price. In each period it is necessary to strengthen one or another directions, it is their unique mix and gives the competitive advantage of the network in the market.
About energy independence, the difficult winter of 22-23 forced us to carefully approach the issue of energy independence. In each store we have installed powerful energy generators and satellite modems of Starlink, which provide uninterrupted access to the Internet. Thus, each store can work offline without access to network power supply and mobile communications.
If light is switched off, anyone can come to the nearest Novus store, heat food and contact your loved ones through the Internet from Starlink. In 2023, we took another step towards "green" energy. As a pilot project, a 200 kW solar power plant was installed, which in the summer could ensure the operation of the entire store.
During the test period, we were convinced that this project is financially occupied, so in the future it is quite likely to switch to alternative electrical generation throughout our network. From the beginning of the war, the Lithuanian Food For Ukraine Lithuanian Charitable Foundation, founded by Novus Raymondas Tumenas, provided assistance to more than UAH 84 million. The product kits were given to Ukrainians who were affected by hostilities. Last year, we raised 4.
2 million UAH and transferred them to the equipment of pediatric resuscitation to the National Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery. M. Amosov. We implement in the network the Volia Volia Salt, 100% of which goes to purchase drones for the military. Green baskets installed in Novus stores are constantly collecting product assistance for the Armed Forces. Thanks to the indifferent Ukrainians, we gave more than 16 tons of provisions the military last year.
We also respond promptly to acute social problems that arise as a result of fighting in Ukraine. Thus, when Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power plants in the summer of 2023, we sent some trucks with drinking water for the injured residents of the Kherson region, and in April - May this year, assisted the Kharkiv residents affected by massive shelling of the Russians. About the future of difficult times are forced to transform, become more effective and purposeful.
As of now, Novus has recovered after the war caused and slowly increasing the network with new stores of different format. The pleasant news was the opening of the Unified Novus Logistics Center, the operation of which will significantly reduce logistics costs and replace all distribution centers with which we worked before. In fact, we spend very rationally, firstly, given the credit obligations to banks, and secondly, we accumulate strength for the next "jump".