Ukraine is one of the most important players in the world grain market. Thanks to a bumper harvest, Ukraine exported nearly 50 million tons of grain to world markets in 2018/2019 agricultural season. For our Technology Platform section, we interviewed with Oleksandr Vereshchynskyi, General Director of OLIS, Ukraine’s leading company in the development, production and implementation of technologies and equipment for the grain processing industry. Mr. Vereshchynskyi told Miller Magazine Odessa-based based company’s expansion, their innovations, vision and future plans.

Interview: Namık Kemal Parlak Mr. Vereshchynskyi, could you please provide us with some brief background information on your company and its activities? OLIS Company is a leading supplier of modern technical solutions for grain processing. We develop, produce and implement technologies and equipment for grain cleaning, grain processing into flour and cereals, as well as laboratory equipment for determining the quality of grain and its products. Production capacities of the company and its management are located in Odessa, Ukraine. Work on the markets is carried out by our distributors, providing the organization of sales, supply of spare parts and the provision of service. We have made significant investments in development and our company today has new modern production facilities, advanced means of production as well as the latest methods of organizing and managing all processes.

Could you tell us about the benefits of products manufactured by your company? First of all, our technologies and equipment are distinguished by high efficiency, reliability and reasonable cost. Such performance is the result of our research and development work. To this end, we have created a research laboratory equipped with specially designed instruments and equipment that allow us to model and study any grain processing processes. We also have a test stand, where we test and refine our solutions in the required modes. We have several powerful and reliable partners; these are grain processing enterprises that are leaders in their product markets. They help us conduct industrial testing of new technologies and equipment. In addition, we have the most important thing - it is a high intellect and skillful hands of Ukrainian researchers, engineers and workers.

To which markets does your company supply its products and which markets do you consider promising? What is your sales strategy? About 60% of our products we sell in Ukraine, the rest are exported. Among our customers are enterprises from 15 countries on different continents. To the markets with the large flows of grain, we mainly supply the same equipment we sell in Ukraine. However, in many regions of the world, a significant amount of grain is grown and processed by relatively small flows, so we pay great attention to solutions for this segment also. Our promising markets are wherever there is grain. The company’s sales development strategy is to thoroughly work out in the domestic market, primarily those solutions that can be successful in other markets.

Who are the customers of your company and what kind of relationship do you have with them? Our customers are entrepreneurial people. Among them there are small and medium-sized enterprises, large port elevators, large industrial companies, as well as powerful agricultural holdings. We are sure that reputation is above all; therefore, to be honest is our most important rule! In our work, there are tasks of varying complexity and for their solution we always have the necessary reserve of perseverance, knowledge and technical capabilities. Our customers understand that they have a reliable, competent and strong partner.

How do you feel about your competitors? What competitive methods do you consider most effective? Firstly, we perceive our competitors as a natural and regular phenomenon that does not allow us to “to be asleep” and this teaches us a lot. When there is healthy competition, there will be development. Secondly, we know that if old rivals disappear, new ones will take their place. Therefore, it is better to be those ones we do know. Thirdly, we always say good things about our competitors, because we respect them and ourselves. A good company cannot have bad competitors. The best method of competition is to demonstrate our success and hard work together with specialists in the grain processing industry.

Could you please tell us the new projects that you have completed recently? We launch the grain cleaning complexes of different capacities and equip production laboratories with instruments all the time in the different countries. In addition, during the past year, we launched three groats plants for processing buckwheat into grains, as well as a groats processing plant for oats. These projects were implemented in Kazakhstan.

What are your plans and expectations for the coming years as a company? Ukraine is a large grain market, which develops actively and therefore the best companies from all over the world prefer to work here. At the same time if we successfully compete here, we can really hope for a good prospect both in the domestic market and in the external one. Our plans are still connected with the development and investment in new ideas.