Instead, we had an interesting and inspiring conversation with young and energetic company director Oleh Dmytruk. He is serious and concentrated but when you start talking about manufacture, his face and tone change. Oleh Dmytruk talks about his work like about his child - he is proud of it, had to sacrifice some things and to take the risk. Eitherway fortune smiled upon the company, and today it is the leading manufacturer in sausage market of Western Ukraine and is popular all around the country.

Mr Oleh, how did it all begin?

It started naturally, even banally. I and some of my companions decided to buy land on the farm Vsevolodivka in 2006. The air is pure and the well water is crystally clear there. The best conditions for food manufacture! Besides my father was always travelling abroad for seasonal works (building houses). I wanted him to stop working there and stay with family. So I asked him to come back home with his crew and build something here. His hands created the first unit of today’s company.

Why had you chosen sausage manufacture?

At that time destiny brought me together with my old friend living in Moldova. During some fun feast being in a good mood (smiling) he promised to introduce me to one of the most famous sausages manufacturers in Europe. Of course, I had to remind my friend about his promise. I met this technologist and was inspired by his experience and love for the manufacture of sausages. We had got some credits and equipped our own small, primitive production. My whole family worked there - my mother, father and my wife with me, that is why this company is the family business. We were making a good product and knew its quality was high. But we couldn’t expect our Volyn people accepted the products from the beginning. So we had to expand our team and equipment what we actually did.

How many people has been working for you then?

When we started, we had no financial possibility to employ people as I couldn’t guarantee them anything. So we have begun using our resources. After a while, we started to hire workers.

You founded the company in 2007 and crisis came in 2008. How could you manage to stay on the market?

It was a tough test for the company and my family. I had many employees at that time and realised the responsibility I took as an employer.

We were working at our maximum output both physical and mental. I came back to loans; I was mortgaged to the hilt. I even thought about what village to choose to live in if the company fails to go through this difficult time. But everything worked out, people of my region continued to buy our products as well as people all around Ukraine. I would like to mention that patriotism of Volyn people is an integral part of their identity. It may be one of the reasons why they support Volyn manufacturers.

As for our first steps, we relied on cooked sausage products and developed unique for Ukrainian market formula and new flavour. The thing is I remember the taste and flavour of Soviet time canned stewed meat from my childhood. And I couldn’t find the product with this taste. So we’ve decided to find spices and make a sausage with the most similar taste. The sausage was quite fatty. German laboratory chose a set of spices for us, and we started the manufacture. Due to the fact sausage was quite soft, older people especially liked it. People from all over Ukraine called me and ordered the sausage because of the high demand for it. Just imagine, we were selling 50 tonnes/month of this sausage three months after the start.

When did you realise your company has become the serious competitor for other sausage manufacturers?

It happened when we launched the manufacture of that fat sausage. We became popular and not just local manufacturers started to monitor our activity but national ones. Competitors technologists couldn’t understand how is that possible to work with formulas containing this amount of fat. But when they got a better look at the demand for this sausage, they started to think where to get this recipe and spices. Of course, those who seek will find. As a result, we have very similar products of our competitors on the market. Our recipe patents and attempts to sue didn’t stop them.Even the fact we had patents for our recipe and tried to sue  Fair competition, as well as fair courts, are not typical to Ukrainian reality. I can’t say competitors buried our product, but there is no need to manufacture that amount of product today if to compare it with the beginning.

It is a well-known fact that the success of the company and the product quality depend on the workers’ professionalism. Tell us what strategy do you stick to working with employees?

My strategy is the open communication with workers and help in the professional development of each one. I believe that you can’t keep an employee on the work just for money. If the only motivation for a worker is money, he will leave the work as soon as he can get more money at other company. And now imagine employee is given a possibility to grow professionally, take responsibility and make more valued work than he did yesterday. He is running at full speed to the office because he is trusted, he is given an opportunity to learn, because the work is interesting, because the worker feels personal progress.

Besides, we support our workers in their want to get the education. We also invite the best specialists to perform seminars and professional training. All these things inspire our employees.

If to talk about communication, anyone from my team can come to me and talk about matters that bother him. I stay at work from early morning till late evening. (Manufacture starts working at 6 am)

We have no employee turnover. It is very rare somebody retires, and if it happens, it is connected with moving to other cities or important family affairs.

The high-quality product is impossible without high-quality raw material. What can you say about your raw material manufacturers?

We choose suppliers very carefully. The company has worked for a long time for customers to be sure in high quality of our products. If I buy at least one batch of raw materials of inappropriate quality, I will nullify all the results.

It is comfortable to work with us. But if I see just a small try to sell us materials that don’t meet my requirements, I start looking for the new supplier or ways out of the situation. For example, we were buying the chicken fillet. In a while, I have noticed that fillet contained too much water. As we have failed to find another supplier we decided to buy whole carcases and debone them. In other words, all our decisions are aimed at support of customer confidence in our products.

Meat processing company has to stick to strict sanitary and hygienic norms. How do you make it at your manufacture?

Every employee comes to manufactory through the shower. The entrance is equipped with sanitary walk-through which provides more cleaning and disinfection of workers’ footwear as well as hands sanitising finish. Modern equipment gives the possibility to minimise contact of employees with raw material and reduces the so-called human factor.

I would like to mention that our products are packed in film bags filled with the special gas mix for food storage which improves the conditions and duration of product storage. We make this to minimise the possibility someone can touch the product with non-sterile hands while loading, transportation or selling.

We are trying to make our manufacture as qualitative as European. One of the necessary steps for that is HACCP implementation (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point). HACCP system is the only system of food products safety control that proved its effectiveness and accepted by international organisations. This system lets create and control conditions for safe products manufacture by identifying and avoiding any hazards (chemical, biological and physical).

What are your company plans for future except HACCP?

Soon our ™ “Dmytruk” products are going to enter the market which will let customers associate it with my name and me personally.

We’ve made this decision after being sure that one of the most important criteria for each of our customers is the constant high quality of the product, the freshness of raw materials and production conditions that meet European standards. For that reason, I am ready to mark every product with my name to guarantee the constant production control, compliance to sanitary conditions of manufacture throughout the process.

I hope this decision will become an important indicator for our consumers.

And tell us in conclusion: what helps you making your decisions? What inspires you?

My heightened sense of justice helps me in making decisions. Perhaps that is the reason no one in my region can tell a single bad word about me.

As for inspiration, once someone asked me to what stages our sausage business life can be divided. Well, when we started our family business it seemed we had the stage of dreaminess. But it turned out this stage is still not over (smiling). There will be no development without belief in your business. We dream today and work for this dream to come true. Tomorrow we see that we have reached what we’ve planned. Then comes a new dream. Perhaps the dream is a thing that inspires.