Founded in 1989, Spetztekhosnastka (STO) is growing exponentially into global markets with its molds, tooling and specialized parts, which are used in top-end German automobiles, medical components and more

What is STO’s single most important competitive advantage?

Our expertise in tools and parts functionality. Customers come to us, and quite often they don’t know how to manufacture the parts they need. For example, they may have gone to China with a request but in China they didn’t know how to make it. We do.

What reaction do you get to your products from the German market?

Our German partners rate us very highly. There are very few companies in Europe that make molds like we do, and our prices are substantially lower than in Germany, particularly with more complex products. And our quality is much better, I believe.

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The largest private holding company in the Dnipropetrovsk region has synergistic business interests in manufacturing, construction, real estate and agribusiness

Stanislav Vilensky recalls starting out in the 1990s by developing a manufacturing and distributing company for washing products that ended up being bought by industry giant Procter & Gamble. “They made us an offer we couldn’t refuse,” he explained. From there, Alef moved into plastics, concrete and building parts, metallurgy and several other export-oriented sectors. Because of its relative proximity, competitive costs and skilled workers, Vilensky is convinced that “Ukraine is an amazing manufacturing hub for Europe and for Germany in particular.”

Dnipro-based company Interpipe is among the world’s top 10 producers of seamless pipes and the third-largest producer of solid rolled railway wheels

How has Interpipe changed since 2014?

Over half of our sales used to go to Russia and countries like Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. Within the last four years, we’ve completely diversified. Now more than half of our sales go to the Americas, Europe and the Middle East.

“We have bridged the technology gap, the quality gap and the perception gap”

In 2016, Interpipe entered into a joint venture with France’s Vallourec. What were the reasons behind that?

To be successful in international markets, we had to bridge the technology gap, the quality management gap and the perception gap. Vallourec is the best of the best in terms of quality, technology and client perception.

The real estate sector in Ukraine is benefiting from improved investment conditions amid a construction boom. Dnipro-based Delmar has come up with a special plan for foreign investors to participate in this growth area

Based in Dnipro and with offices in Kiev and Munich, Delmar has developed 148 properties throughout Ukraine, where the construction sector has grown by more than 30 percent in the last two years.
To facilitate the entry of international clients, Delmar has created a risk-free investment set-up, whereby they first enter a leasing arrangement on a property with the investment needed to buy remaining in their home-country bank. “The investor can then cancel and get their money back, or go ahead and receive eight or 10 percent annual returns. This program has piqued the interest of German investors who are quite risk-averse,” explained Delmar’s co-founder, Aleksandr Turchin.