Vadaturskyi talked about $416 million in losses in 2022, a new management model and Nibulon's plans

Next year, Nibulon plans to comprehensively modernize the enterprise and purchase new equipment.

This was announced by the company's general director Andrii Vadaturskyi in an address to the 32nd anniversary of the company.

«Today we celebrate 32 years since the foundation of our company. Almost two of them we lived in the conditions of war. The events of these two years significantly changed the company and, unfortunately, brought significant losses. In fact, they presented us with a choice: bankruptcy or fundamental changes that would allow us to face the challenges created by Russian aggression. We chose change,» he wrote.

He said that the first step on this path was to ensure the physical safety of employees. In the conditions of daily massive shelling of Mykolaiv, a decision was made to relocate the central office to Kyiv. 112 employees moved to safer conditions in the capital and received additional provision for housing rent. According to him, the change of location also opened opportunities for attracting new specialists.

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He also reminded that in the conditions of war, limited funding and unstable supply chains, Nibulon built a new critical infrastructure object — a transshipment terminal in Izmail, which provided the country with a new guaranteed export channel and made Nibulon independent from the manipulations of the Russian Federation regarding export control.

Andrii Vadaturskyi also spoke about the changes that have taken place within the organization. To speed up the adoption of management decisions and improve their quality, a one-level governance model was introduced and the Board of Directors and four committees were created. This allowed the enterprise to practice collegial responsibility for decision-making, encourage discussion for comprehensive consideration of issues and reduce the risk of errors. At the same time, a digital transformation project was launched, the IT infrastructure was updated and the IT service was restructured.

The CEO of the company said that in 2022, the company received more than $416 million in losses. Despite this, a significant part of Nibulon's loan portfolio was restructured on long-term terms.

«New initiatives and results of the team's work during the war allowed us to gain the trust and support of creditors. Despite 2022 losses exceeding $416 million. Despite the fact that today only 32% of the company's assets are working, a significant part of the loan portfolio of «Nibulon», which was involved for the construction of the company, has already been restructured on long-term terms. We are grateful to all partners for the help and time given to the company for recovery, and we hope that the rest of the banks will join already this year,» wrote Andrii Vadaturskyi.

Next year, the company plans to achieve greater efficiency in all areas and comprehensively modernize, the general director said.

«The first steps have already been taken. Thus, the results of the reform of agricultural production, which started this year, eloquently demonstrate that under the conditions of using modern approaches in the complex, it is possible to achieve the profitability of agricultural production even when exports are blocked and logistics costs increase. Within the framework of the reform, we have reviewed the technology of soil treatment in the direction of more economical and sustainable, we are introducing automation, we have stabilized relations with landlords and the land bank. So, this year, Nibulon paid the rent for the land that was not cultivated during the war, and the terms of contracts with the owners of land plots were extended,» he said.

In addition, more than 4,000 hectares of land in the Mykolaiv region were returned to the economy by the newly created direction of humanitarian demining. And soon, thanks to the support of DEG Impulse gGmbH, Nibulon will have four powerful demining machines, which will allow to significantly speed up the pace of work and the level of safety for sappers. This will make it possible not only to clean up one's own land bank, but also to provide services to anyone who wants to.

Further steps include investments of up to 20 million USD in modern agricultural machinery.

«We bet on proven European manufacturers, such as CLAAS, HORSHCH, HARDI, BEDNAR and others. The Danish Export Investment Fund (EIFO) is helping us with the renewal of the equipment park. Thank you very much for the support and the opportunity to achieve competitiveness in these extremely difficult conditions!», Andrii Vadaturskyi said.

Modernization also affected the direction of the company's logistics. The total amount of investment amounted to almost 14 million US dollars and included the renewal of the car fleet and the development of the port infrastructure.

In view of the reorientation of export chains during the war and the complete loss of river navigation, Nibulon increased the share of grain transportation by truck. In support of the chosen course, we have invested in the purchase of 74 new Scania trucks, STAS trailers, as well as new fuel trucks and tankers, which will strengthen our competitive advantage in logistics.

The port infrastructure of the Bessarabska branch was strengthened by two new LIEBHERR loaders, which will allow additional handling of up to 1,000 tons of grain per hour and will be used in other logistics models of the company.

In turn, the «NIBULON» railway park was also replenished. The USAID project «Economic Support of Ukraine» purchased for the company 50 modern hopper cars built at the «Karpaty» DMZ.

Up next is the modernization of the elevator direction for a total amount of up to 12 million US dollars. The main volume of investments will be directed to the construction of a new elevator at the Khmilnyk branch, the reconstruction of Vradiivskyi JSC and Kolosivskyi Elevator LLC.

We will remind you that recently Andrii Vadaturskyi was included in the ranking of the Ukrainian public authorities, who are bringing the country closer to victory in the war with the Russian Federation.

Andrii Vadaturskyi became the general director of Nibulon JV LLC in the autumn of last year. He headed the company in connection with the tragic death of his father, the founder and general director of the company Oleksii Vadaturskyi.