Читати українською
When siblings Olena and Rostyslav Vovk are requested how their household business started, the reply is fairly easy. “During Soviet times, our father was one of the senior managers at the alcohol and yeast corporation,” they clarify. “In the 1990s he saw the potential of one of the most under-developed regional yeast plants, and so he created his own company – Enzym.”
As quickly because the borders opened within the early Nineteen Nineties, he went to Europe, realized about European requirements on hygiene, effectivity and gear, and used them as a benchmark.
“The company ceased being Soviet and by the early 2000s we were essentially European,” Olena says.
Enzym is now the market chief within the yeast business in Ukraine and one of many largest and most fashionable producers in Europe, having developed such business areas as a bakery, yeast manufacturing, yeast meals elements and feed components.
Olena heads Enzym Group and Rostyslav manages Kormotech, a pet meals producer. Both are a part of the Vovk household business, based mostly in Lviv.
Challenges will be alternatives
The siblings had their very own plans for all times and a profession. Olena, for instance, dreamt of a profession in worldwide diplomacy or finance. “When I returned to Kyiv, after studying in the United States, our father suggested that I join a few strategic meetings and I completely fell for it,” Olena recollects.
“I came to father with my own business idea and never looked back,” Rostyslav explains. “I started to construct a new plant and was so fascinated that it became my life.”
The siblings are always searching for new alternatives, which typically emerge from challenges. With fewer folks consuming bread, manufacturing services changing into extra environment friendly and yeast changing into extra energetic and fewer product being required, the worldwide bread market is stagnating. So the corporate determined to diversify into science-intensive yeast meals elements.
“The first thing to invest in is research and development. An advisory project with the EBRD helped us involve scientific experts from various countries, who formed the basis of our R&D department, which currently counts more than 20 scientists. This became the heart of our transformation, because their task is to work on new products based on the yeast cell, which we can then commercialise,” shares Olena.
The undertaking was supported by the EBRD Ukraine Stabilisation and Sustainable Growth Multi-Donor Account (which contains Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the European Union, the most important donor).
Enzym Group has additionally grow to be one of many winners of Climate Innovation Vouchers, a joint initiative by the EBRD and the European Union. This helped the corporate enhance the capability of biogas reactor and deepen the cleansing means of wastewater within the yeast manufacturing course of. Depending on the season, it now recovers between 30 and 50 per cent of its pure fuel wants with biogas from its crops.
Furthermore, the EBRD’s worldwide advisory programme helped the corporate assess the necessity for a brand new plant. In December 2020 throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Enzym Group acquired a €10 million mortgage from the Bank to develop manufacturing. It was co-financed by a €3 million mortgage from the TaiwanICDF. In addition, the European Union, below its EU4Business initiative, lined environmental and social due diligence and authorized prices.
The new plant makes merchandise that include greater than 45-50 per cent protein, permitting the meals business to make use of options to salt, assist vegans and vegetarians enhance their protein consumption and enhance the flavour of the ultimate product. Their probiotic yeast makes it doable to substitute or cut back the usage of antibiotics in animal husbandry, addressing the worldwide downside of antibiotic resistance.
The manufacturing facility is considered one of few such factories on the planet. It was completed throughout the full-scale struggle.
Disbelieving however ready
“No one believed the war would happen, but we were preparing for it. Bomb shelters for all employees were ready and equipped. We had several drills, all employees knew what to do. We had bought all the necessary raw materials and gas. On 24 February in the morning, 99 per cent of our workers were at their workplaces. It says a lot about their commitment. We did not stop working, even for a day,” Olena says.
“We realised that bread would become a basic need, as well as yeast – bakeries and bread factories could not work, so people baked at home,” she remembers. “On the first day of war, we split into a crisis and humanitarian centre. The crisis centre helped provide yeast to all regions despite disruptions in the supply chain. Our humanitarian centre received requests from volunteers to whom we sent yeast for free. Some employees also baked bread until night for refugees at Lviv railway station.”
Despite the struggle, Enzym Group continued to obtain inquiries from potential companions arund the world. “Our office and warehouse in Krakow, Poland, help us reduce the risks for our global partners. It means we can provide them with a product of high quality on time, regardless of circumstances,” Olena shares.
“Currently, we are present in Europen markets, the UK, Asia and Africa and, in the near future, we plan to expand there further. We have also recently launched a new factory. The potential of yeast ingredients is huge.”
Enzym Group already exports greater than half its merchandise to 23 nations and can rejoice its thirtieth anniversary subsequent yr.
The firm can be engaged on additional advisory tasks to extend operations administration effectivity and enhance the micro-organism fermentation course of. Both tasks are being carried out with EBRD help and funding from Switzerland by means of the EBRD’s Small Business Impact Fund (donors to the SBIF are: Italy, Ireland, South Korea, Luxembourg, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Japan, the United States, and the TaiwanBusiness-EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund).
“The success of our company is based on the ambition that we never stop and we are always a step ahead,” concludes Olena. “That has made it possible to achieve the dream of our father – to build a modern and successful European company.”
