It was exactly one year ago and the Ukrainian pet food company Kormotech had just completed its annual meeting. The climate was good, business was booming, the factory was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and sales were predicted to rise by double digits. “We had a good budget,” recalls Rostislav Vovk, head and founder of the company. Sirens sounded the next morning, and although they had a plan for a possible attack, it soon proved completely inadequate. He closed the factory. Raw materials could not enter the country, and supplies sent abroad could not be exported. Personnel from the besieged eastern part of the country had to be evacuated. Employees were unionized, and Belarus, the company’s largest export market, was a close ally of the Russian president. Like the CEOs of tens of thousands of companies across Ukraine, Mr. Vovk and his team are suddenly faced with new and challenging responsibilities to keep their businesses alive in the chaos and danger of war. Before the conflict, Ukraine’s private sector, including its huge steel and agricultural industries, accounted for 70% of its GDP. 83% of businesses suffered losses due to the war. 40% were directly affected, for example, a factory or shop was destroyed by a rocket, and 25% are located in the occupied part of the country.

Kormotech, a family business with 1,300 employees worldwide, does not manufacture weapons or drones, but hires people, generates income, earns foreign exchange from exports, and contributes the income the government desperately needs for military operations. This year, Mr. Vovk and his management team once again found something to celebrate. Activity increased more than expected. Here are a few reasons: The company’s plant was located outside of Lviv in the westernmost part of the country, close to the Polish border, in one of the safest corners of Ukraine. Two factories in Prilbici were able to reopen less than two weeks after the start of the war. An earlier decision to commission an additional plant in Lithuania, which opened in 2020 and worked around the clock, turned out to be a boon.

The company sells its products in 35 countries, including the US and Europe, and regularly stocks at least a month in its warehouses in Ukraine, two in other European countries, and two and a half months in the US. However, Kormotech’s supply chain was disrupted. Before the war, about half of its raw materials, such as meat and chicken meal, came from abroad. Now border delays and rising import prices have prompted her to seek out domestic producers – she found two locals who had never made pet food and taught them what to do, less than 40 miles from the factory. As it turned out, they were not only cheaper, but also did not have to be paid for in precious foreign currency. Instead of buying 500 tons of meal from abroad, the company now buys 100 tons.