Winter event 2020. Bestowal of the Family Business Awards winners, as well as Familia LISOD, Fedoriv Group and Gres Todorchuk

21.12.2020

The last event of the year (the 7th FBN Ukraine event) was traditionally combined with the ceremony of bestowal the winners of the Family Business Awards. The winter event of the Association of Family Businesses Owners of Ukraine took place on December 4-5 in Kiev. It began with the ceremony of bestowal the winners of the Family Business Awards in the metropolitan Hilton Hotel. Moreover, this year there were three winners at once - in the nominations ‘Small,’ ‘Medium’ and ‘Large family business.’

Remembering the summer event in Lviv, Burda moved on to the ceremony of awarding Enzym and Kormotech owned by the Vovk family as the best hosts of 2020. Tatiana Burda presented the FBN honorary award to Rostislav Vovk.

For the presentation of the special Deloitte Ukraine prize ‘For Resilience During Global Challenges,’ Andrey Zdesenko, the owner of the Biosphere Corporation, was invited to the stage. Biosphere was honored for the active expansion of production and the ability to preserve the existing sales markets during the crisis with no losses virtually.

The Korostylev family received a special prize from IdeasFirst ‘For Harmonious Integration of NextGen Into Family Business’ this year. Elio founder Yuriy Korostylev thanked the FBN Ukraine Association, largely owing to which his sons came to his furniture business. For almost a year now, Oleg and Vladimir have been running a company that continues its international expansion.

After the ceremony of bestowal with special prizes, it was the turn of the ultimate prize nominees. Ruslana Rymarskaya, the founder of the Family Bakery ‘Budmo Zdorovi,’ a laureate in the category ‘Small Business,’ was the first to go up the stage. Her company produces hypoallergenic cookies under the ‘Smakuli’ TM. The production of cookies has been developing since 2016; now the bakery is preparing to enter the US and Canada markets. ‘Smakuli’ systematically spend a part of the profits on charity.

In the ‘Medium Business’ nomination, the award went to Yuriy Sinitsa, whose Collar Company ranks first in Ukraine and one of the world’s leading ones in the production of goods and ammunition for pets. Dmitriy Kazavchinskiy, the co-founder and CEO of GST Group and last year’s winner of the Family Business Awards, took the stage to award Yuriy Sinitsa with his wife.

The prize of the best family company in the category ‘Big Business’ was awarded to the Lviv Barkom Company of the Baran-Bаvоrovskiy family. Barkom gained the victory not least because an independent board of directors has been operating in the Lviv company since 2016: corporate management was an important criterion for evaluating a large family business.

On Saturday morning, December 5, the participants of the event went by bus to the first host company - the Familia dental clinic of the Yevtushenko family.

In the new premises of Familia, Valentina and Maria Yevtushenko greeted the participants and gave a tour of all clinic departments telling what makes up the success of private dentistry, how the qualifications of doctors is improving, why it is important to invest in constant updating of the instrumental base of clinics; they shared interesting insights. Familia dental clinic network has united three concepts: Familia Dental Clinic (all types of dental services for children and adults), Familia Dental SPA (aesthetic dentistry and prophylaxis) and Familia Kids (pediatric dentistry clinic). The first clinic - one of the first private dentistry with a department of maxillofacial surgery in Kiev - was opened in 2006. Valentina and Marina Yevtushenko own the network together, while the mother is in the position of the medical director, and the daughter is the CEO. In summer, Familia Dental Clinic moved to the new premises of 400 sq. m - this is how they managed to limit patient contacts with each other, which is important in the pandemic.

Then the participants went to another business unit of the Yevtushenko family - the LISOD oncology clinic, which, together with partners, is owned by Alexander Yevtushenko. LISOD employees told the guests how different types of cancer are treated, why 95% of surgical operations in the clinic are laparoscopic, what diagnostic equipment is used and why Israeli doctors work in the clinic on a permanent basis (rotating).

After the tour, Marina Yevtushenko told the story of the family, and Alexander Yevtushenko informed the participants of the event about the intricacies of private medical business.

The second host of the winter event was the Kooperativ coworking space - a creative space of 4000 sq. m. located on several floors of the building formerly occupied by the book factory ‘Zhovten’ on Sichovykh Streltsov Street. Here, Andrey Fedoriv, ​​the founder of Fedoriv Group, was the first to speak to the audience. He spoke about the 20-year journey of transforming his own business, explained how he came from an intangible business to a tangible one, and why he became one of the investors in Kooperativ. In his presentation, the founder of the Fedoriv Group reasoned about the paradox of the need to focus on the business in which you want to succeed, and the equally important necessity to diversify the business; he noted that the business ‘you don’t love’ is doomed. A significant part of his speech was surely devoted to marketing and Fedoriv Group projects in this field, on the example of which he explained to the audience his theory of changes in business conditions and consumer behavior.

Vasiliy Grogol, the founder of the BursaAlellier Group and co-founder of Kooperativ complemented Andrey Fedoriv’s speech. His presentation had a self-explanatory title, ‘How to change partners, alter the concept, open during a lockdown and achieve 95% occupancy of 4000 sq. m.’

After the tour of Kooperativ, a short presentation of their own family business, more precisely, the concept of a ‘family within a family' business, was made by Yaroslava Gres and Alexander Todorchuk. It was about the joint project of brother and sister, the Gres Todorchuk Agency. Yaroslava Gres’s speech - with the demonstration of well-known videos, viral activities and social projects - did not leave cold virtually anyone.

The evening ended with a performance featured by the musical band with a 40-year history - the Kiev Symphony Orchestra.