Odessa's Seventh Kilometer Industrial Goods Market (Promtovary Rynok LLC) is currently the center of public and media attention. In an interview with one of Promtovary Rynok LLC's founders, Boris Melnychuk, we discuss the current operating conditions at Europe's largest market, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary in December.
— Boris Vladimirovich, how is the market doing in these difficult times for the country?
We're trying to live, not just survive, so that our employees, entrepreneurs, and customers feel as little of the country's difficult economic situation as possible. The market employs approximately 60 people, and we have 15 retail spaces. The Seventh Kilometer market is visited daily by approximately 200 people. Remarkably, the market administration employs 1400 people, of whom almost a third (more than 400) are cleaners.
The concept of "socially responsible enterprise" has become somewhat overused in recent years. However, our activities are guided by the principles of social responsibility and innovative development, which are implemented through state budget contributions, social programs, contributions to social funds, and the implementation of new trade standards.
Every year, the company contributes over 125 million hryvnias in taxes to the state, as well as over 2,5 million to charitable causes.
At the same time, a comprehensive modernization program is being implemented in the market, which includes the improvement of retail pavilions, the construction of awnings, and the creation of optimal conditions for sales and purchases.
The market's original site, "Field of Miracles," has been completely reconstructed. All the metal tables installed 20 years ago have been completely removed. In their place, new, comfortable pavilions have been installed.
One of the most important tasks of the company's administration is the final transition from a spontaneous to a civilized form of trade. And today, this task has essentially been accomplished.
When coming to the Seventh Kilometer, everyone should feel comfortable—whether they're a visitor, an entrepreneur, or a salesperson. We're doing everything we can to ensure that happens. The renovation is being carried out with the consent of the entrepreneurs, who also want to work in friendly, comfortable conditions.
In 2014, the utility systems on the site were refurbished, including the power supply and storm drain systems. Part of the food market, located within the 7-kilometer area, was also reconstructed, and a new employee cafeteria was opened. This year, reconstruction of the entrance gates began at the Seventh Kilometer. Arched structures based on new designs were built at the three front entrances and exits of the market.
— You mentioned charity. It's clear that many projects have been implemented over the market's 25 years of operation. What useful projects have you been able to accomplish, say, recently?
"The Promtovary Market always focuses on saving lives in its charitable activities. This principle was established by the market's founder, Viktor Leontyevich Dobryansky."
In 2014, the majority of funds earmarked for charitable purposes were used to support military units of the Ukrainian army.
In particular, the company's funds were used to purchase and transfer uniforms for active military units and utensils for a mobile field hospital.
A specialized tanker with fuel was donated to one of the units. Several other military units also received communications equipment, equipment, and supplies for the life support and normal functioning of their units, which have seen their personnel numbers increase significantly due to the events in Crimea, through the purchase of consumer goods.
Following the tragic events in Odessa on May 2, the Seventh Kilometer industrial market purchased medical equipment for the surgical departments of city hospitals where injured Odessans were treated and market employees donated blood. Assistance was later provided to the family of the Odessan entrepreneur who died on May 2.
Thanks to the dedication of the Seventh Kilometer entrepreneurs and the administration, over 10 tons of clothing, shoes, bedding, and bottled drinking water were donated to 500 children from boarding schools and orphanages in the Luhansk region, located in the urban-type settlement of Serhiivka near Odesa. The amount of aid collected was so large that the company's representatives dispatched a humanitarian train to Serhiivka twice.
In August, a charity marathon was held in collaboration with the Ovidiopol District Administration and the Avangard Village Council on the industrial market grounds to raise funds and humanitarian aid for ATO participants in eastern Ukraine.
Again in August, the Seventh Kilometer team donated an automated hematology analyzer to the Odessa Military Medical Clinical Center of the Southern Region (Hospital 411) for examining wounded service members. Now, medical staff will be able to quickly conduct diagnostics and clinical examinations, primarily for seriously wounded soldiers transported to the region from the ATO zone. Given the limited healthcare budget, the medical staff would not have been able to purchase this vitally needed device, which costs almost 100 hryvnias.
In these difficult times, everyone should do whatever they can to help those who need assistance today. Right now, this primarily concerns military personnel and displaced persons from the ATO zone.
— The central media story surrounding "Seventh Kilometer" concerns an attempted corporate takeover of the market, which the media has identified as being orchestrated by Odesa Regional Council deputies Viktor Dobryansky Jr. and Denis Voloshin. However, several publications have reported that you allegedly made joint statements with Dobryansky and Voloshin, suggesting you support their actions. How can you comment on this?
"I must say I was surprised to read this material, claiming that I, along with them, had allegedly issued what turned out to be an 'official statement' from the founders of Promtovary Rynok LLC. The fact is, I made no such statements jointly with any of the deputies. And I never entered into any deals with anyone."
Moreover, I don't understand what I could possibly have in common with people the media portrays as fraudsters who have committed numerous illegal acts. After all, according to the media, there are now doubts about their right to even call themselves co-founders. After all, judge for yourself: when they failed to seize someone else's property legally, journalists believe they resorted to even more shady means: bribery, blackmail, and provocation. And yet, honest, open, and socially responsible businesses don't accept this.
I am confident that our primary task today, as founders, is to further develop the market, improve it, and combine innovation policies with social guarantees for employees. All these infighting, disputes, scandals, and takeovers are certainly not conducive to this. Even more so is the politicization, or more accurately, the political distortion of the true cause of the current business dispute, which does not contribute to the development of entrepreneurship or the expansion of the tax base. And I am confident that the prosecutor's office and law enforcement agencies will give this a corresponding assessment.
Afterword: As has been repeatedly reported in the media, Odesa Regional Council deputies Viktor Dobryansky and Denis Voloshin have been persistently attempting to destabilize the Seventh Kilometer market for a long time. A report in one Odesa media outlet claiming that market co-founder Boris Melnichuk allegedly made some joint statements with the impostor founders is just one of many provocations.
As a reminder, the deputies, imagining themselves to be the market's owners, first attempted to seize the enterprise through the courts, then staged a "masked show," attempting to seize the market's administration through corporate raiding. Then, they staged fictitious shareholder meetings. All of this was accompanied by a deceitful media campaign.
Here's the latest example of the methods local deputies, dreaming of becoming "people's deputies," are using to wage an information war against the Seventh Kilometer. On September 9, a large team of prosecutors and tax inspectors arrived at the market. They conducted searches, seizing invoices and other documents not at the market's management, as had previously been the case, but at the retail outlets. Soon, identical (word for word!) news stories appeared on several websites controlled by Voloshin and Dobryansky, headlined "The prosecutor's office conducted an authorized search at the 7th Kilometer market, - press service." However, the text of the report stated that the comprehensive inspection of the market took place on August 27, not September 9! And the website of the Odessa Regional Prosecutor's Office, as expected, contains no information about the search on September 9. This gaffe by these would-be PR people was pointed out, among others, by the publication "Obozrevatel."
What more can be said? The deputies are simply at a loss for what other provocation they can come up with to destabilize the country's largest taxpayer. But despite the smear campaign unleashed against Seventh Kilometer, the company's staff continues to work harmoniously, and the market continues to grow.
Well, for more information on the other methods raiders use in their schemes, see the video below:
Interviewed by Konstantin LARIN, Ukrrudprom
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