Výroba na Ukrajině – Rok s válkou – Production in Ukraine

Last year was a tough test for us, and we learned a lot of new things, not only for us and our production but especially for our employees, colleagues, and Ukrainian friends.

In the first days, fear and panic accompanied us all. We stopped production for two days. But since we produce almost a million cable harnesses for automotive and home appliances per month and many big brands around the world depend on our supplies, we quickly got back to work. With our financial support, we allowed our employees to stay at home, but almost all of them decided to continue working. A few of our key male employees were drafted into the war.

We operated with sirens blaring constantly, accompanied by telecommunications outages. For three months, we hid in a warehouse during air raids. Our customers never forgave us for anything. We did not want to give them a single excuse to leave Ukraine and our production and transfer to Africa or the Balkans. People would lose their jobs and their livelihoods.

Goods of daily use, services, petrol were increasingly becoming temporarily unavailable. Added to this were unpredictable power cuts in the autumn.

Fear accompanies us to this day. It would be untrue to play the hero and claim that we have no respect when the sirens are blaring. This ordeal has hardened us, and we are now open to new opportunities, and the Ukrainians deserve them. We were incredibly surprised by their resilience.

Zero sickness, absolute obedience, productivity gains, streamlining of all processes.

Ukrainians need jobs and new opportunities, and this is now a huge opportunity for Czech companies. Ukrainian labor law has loosened up and is now noticeably more flexible.

Companies that are already doing business in Ukraine or that will invest in Ukraine during the war, helping people to get jobs and contributing to the country’s budget, should have great advantages in business in the future. There is talk, for example, of tax breaks and cheaper loans.

We are ready to help with all the facilities for manufacturing companies that want to enter the Ukrainian market and have no experience with the environment, legislation, and human resources. Assembly production can get to a whopping 5.50 EUR/hour. We are ISO 9001 and IATF certified.

Ukrainians are putting their lives on the line for all of us. Their determination and bravery are breathtaking.

Helping Ukraine must not wane and is essential to victory. It is the responsibility of all of us to help.

We ourselves have spent considerable funds on aid, whether it be supplies of food, clothing, shoes, power banks, computers, binoculars, radios, lights, sleeping bags, mattresses, tires, both to the Territorial Defense and to our personnel who have been fighting for a year and are now deployed to Bakhmut.

Likewise, we support our employees every month, who have already received an across-the-board 20% extra to their total salary a few months ago.

Join us at UKRCHAM, the Ukrainian-Czech Chamber of Commerce – www.ukrcham.cz – to share first-hand information about business in Ukraine.

Author – Michaela Macharik Co-Founder & Executive of Time&Space Ukraine