The war in Ukraine has had a serious impact upon our employees and business in Ukraine. Kramp built contingency and crisis plans at the beginning of 2022 as the war scenario became more likely. Christian Weiss, Region Commercial Director, looks back at Ukraine in 2022 and shares his view.
“As well as our donations to the Red Cross and supplying necessary equipment to the Ukraine government to de-mine farmers’ fields, many of our colleagues supported local initiatives. Our team in Poland did an excellent job supporting those fleeing Ukraine by collecting vital products, donating PLN 50,000 to Polish Humanitarian Action, sharing their homes with refugees and bringing materials to the Ukrainian border in their personal vehicles. Also, colleagues from many other countries collected helpful goods to Ukraine. In collaboration between several countries, we brought all kinds of support materials to Ukraine by bus in March 2022. Departing Ukraine, the bus carried refugees to Czech Republic to get them to a safe place,” explains Christian.
“There is high resilience and engagement among our team in Ukraine. Regardless of the war and the inevitable issues, most colleagues remained in Ukraine and wanted to keep the business running and stay connected to customers. Agri activities continued in the west and south of Ukraine. Commercial trucks arrived in Lviv and orders were dispatched to customers. In June, we launched our local web shop in Ukraine, with a high customer take-up. The web shop sales share was more than 70% in the first months, and the launch supported a rebound of business in the second half of 2022. By the end of the year, Ukraine had still managed to grow 10% versus last year (in local currency). Despite the devastating situation in Ukraine, I would like to emphasise how proud I am of our Ukrainian team and the help that other teams provided them,” Christian concludes.
“The start of the year was dominated by the pandemic, which had a big impact on our way of working. We were lucky to have our warehouse heroes coming in every day to keep our warehouses open and make sure that our customers received their orders. Meanwhile, the majority of our office staff worked mostly from home. So, it had an impact on people, on families and on our way of working. We may have become used to it, but it doesn’t get any easier.”
“The start of the year was dominated by the pandemic, which had a big impact on our way of working. We were lucky to have our warehouse heroes coming in every day to keep our warehouses open and make sure that our customers received their orders. Meanwhile, the majority of our office staff worked mostly from home. So, it had an impact on people, on families and on our way of working. We may have become used to it, but it doesn’t get any easier.”
“The start of the year was dominated by the pandemic, which had a big impact on our way of working. We were lucky to have our warehouse heroes coming in every day to keep our warehouses open and make sure that our customers received their orders. Meanwhile, the majority of our office staff worked mostly from home. So, it had an impact on people, on families and on our way of working. We may have become used to it, but it doesn’t get any easier.”
