Business Lockdown: For cosmetics distributor Tatiana Chevrolet, crisis brings opportunities

Editor’s Note: Ukraine’s businesses are struggling after the country introduced nationwide restrictions on movement and travel starting on March 12. The restrictions have been intensified since then and are set to last until at least April 24. Most businesses are closed with employees working remotely or not working at all. The exceptions include supermarkets, pharmacies, banks, parcel delivery services. The borders are closed to most forms of traffic, except Ukrainians returning by foot or by car. Most domestic transportation is closed or heavily restricted. Estimates range on how deeply the ensuing recession will harm Ukraine. The Kyiv Post talked with entrepreneurs about their daily struggles, asking how the quarantine has affected their ventures and what they are planning to do once it’s lifted.

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Tatiana Chevrolet
general director of  Global Distribution Ukraine, an 80-person company that represents the French cosmetic brands Caudalie and l’Occitane in Ukraine

“On the one hand, we were lucky, so to speak, because the quarantine began one week after March 8 (International Women’s Day), which is a key period for cosmetics and the source of the biggest revenues of the year along with New Year’s Eve. The general trend at the beginning of 2020 before (the quarantine) was growth by up to 16% in Ukraine compared to the previous year.

“On the other hand, we lost 80% of our activity, with the shutdown of shops and shopping malls that usually distribute our products. The most difficult decisions were to stop our activities and to organize our digital team. Our revenues coming from the online platform have doubled since the beginning of the quarantine, from 7% to 14%, and we were lucky enough to have an efficient ‘offline’ platform already in place for delivering.

“As a cosmetics producer, l’Occitane is also developing a range of products such as sanitizers to help fight the spread of the coronavirus. They are going to be accessible at the beginning of May and we hope to have a quota of them for Ukraine.

“Since the beginning of the coronavirus’ spread in China, our company has taken steps to upgrade the security of our employees and our clients. What makes me keep going, despite the difficulties, is the team. Our team is great, extremely efficient, and the people are really supportive of each other.

“I’m certain the online platform will save us. The company will still exist, but yes, there are risks of people leaving. It is still unclear how we will manage to keep the team in May. We still pay salaries, but we don’t know what will happen in April.