Ulyana Fitsa - Kormotech,

Sponsored by Max Logistics

Talking supply chain during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with Ulyana Fitsa, Global Chief Supply Chain Officer at Kormotech.

Managing a supply chain has been no mean feat for many companies in peaceful countries over the last five years. But when global pressures combine with war in your own country, maintaining a smooth supply chain demands a special kind of expertise. Which is what Ulyana Fitsa brings to Ukrainian pet food manufacturer Kormotech.

The reality of keeping a business operational during war means that challenges have become part of Ulyana’s every day, but neither she nor her colleagues are willing to be beaten by them. Ulyana has come to accept that there will be a certain kind of chaos in her working life – a chaos that she’s learned to live with and control through the key attributes of flexibility and imagination.

Her efforts combined with that of the company’s 1483-strong workforce means that Kormotech is still going strong, growing and exporting to more countries than ever – almost 50 at present, from three plants based in Ukraine and Lithuania that together have a capacity to produce over 102,000 tonnes of cat and dog food. It’s an operation that demands many different raw materials, and lots of them, to be delivered on time to enable their recipes to be created. Ulyana leads a team of over 200 to help make this happen.

Resilience through flexibility

Having worked within Kormotech since its inception more than 20 years ago, Ulyana has progressed from office manager through logistics and foreign affairs roles and on to the role of Global Chief Supply Chain Officer. If you’re going to ask someone how to enable supply chain resilience, she’s a good person to pose the question given her extensive experience in this area through peace and now in war.

It’s over three years since the invasion of Ukraine led to war, and since then, Kormotech’s supply chain has been pressured from many angles – from the bombing of ports through to an inability to transport products via some neighbouring countries.

Ulyana shares, “We are still in a very difficult position. Flexibility is the new stability. This is the only thing we have to remember. Because nothing is stable – not the prices of the raw material, nor the routes of the ships arriving to Odesa port, which is heavily bombed.”

“We need to change ports all the time to make sure that our product is safe, and the same with some of the raw materials. We have rerouted ways to get these materials due to safety reasons.

“Maybe for the reader who is working in some other part of the world, it looks like a kind of chaos here. But the thing is, chaos is kind of our order now. And this is also the art of management – to focus on the things which may give you a full picture of this puzzle.”

We only suspended our production facilities in Ukraine for the first two days of the full-scale invasion, due to uncertainty and safety concerns. But it quickly became clear that continuing operations was essential — we just needed to rethink our priorities. At Kormotech, we focused on three key areas.

The first was maintaining production for the Ukrainian market. After February 24, 2022, some international competitors withdrew from Ukraine due to security policies. That’s when Kormotech stepped up — we took it upon ourselves to secure raw material supplies and adapt our production processes to the new reality. To ensure uninterrupted production, our employees installed power generators and stocked up on diesel fuel. As a result, pet owners across Ukraine continued to have access to high-quality food for their animals.

The second focus was accelerating our export strategy. Our team understood that exports would not only help stabilize our business but also support Ukraine’s economy. So we expanded our global footprint and put significant effort into strengthening relationships with our existing international partners to boost sales abroad. Today, we export to around 50 countries, with a strategic focus on Central and Eastern Europe. Back in 2020, we opened a factory in Lithuania, and we’re currently building a second wet food facility there, which will triple our production capacity in the country — from 22,000 to 60,000 tonnes per year.

The third pillar of our work is promoting a culture of responsible pet parenting and supporting rescue efforts. Over 10 years of Russian war in Ukraine, Kormotech has helped save thousands of stray and abandoned animals. For us, it’s a test of humanity.

War isn’t the only challenge to Kormotech’s supply chain. Epidemic problems in livestock are also causing issues. Ulyana shares, “Chicken flu is in the USA and in Europe, and there are also diseases affecting pigs and cows. This means I need to check the map of Europe to understand where these issues are and the distance from those areas which are safe. I also need to know the period of that epizootic. “With this information, I'm going to choose  from where I will source the next raw material for the next quarter or more.” Diseases affecting cows are particularly difficult to plan around due to the longer lifespan of cows bred for meat when compared to chickens, causing more pressure on the supply chain. With these diseases, “Again, it’s about instability and uncertainty,” Ulyana points out.

The power of strong partnerships

One thing that helps to ease this instability is maintaining good relationships with suppliers, and adversity has strengthened these bonds.

Many of Kormotech’s suppliers in Ukraine have relocated from the most dangerous areas to places of, as Ulyana calls it, “A kind of safety, where they have shelters and they have the generators.”

Although some suppliers have had to move locations, they’re still very much in business. Ulyana points out, “I'm very proud none of our suppliers disappeared from an economical point. All Ukrainians understood in what situation we suddenly appeared. Each of them rebuilt their business processes, none of them went bankrupt. And it's so powerful when you can help this supplier, and the same supplier can help me.”

She continues, “And that is a remarkable thing, because when you have a friend when times are so dark, it means that when you are in the lighter times, you will have the best partner forever.”

Ulyana also comments on the importance of the support and understanding of overseas suppliers at the beginning of the full-scale war, “Although we had the money available, we didn't have the ability to pay money abroad at the very beginning. We actually wrote a special letter to the ministry where we explained that there was raw material which could only be bought abroad, and they then allowed us to pay.

“But in those first few weeks when I said to my suppliers abroad, ‘Sorry, we can’t pay you now because of bank system safety reasons’, none of them disappeared. None of them started to upgrade their prices. All my suppliers from abroad were still sending me the goods. I really felt their great support. And anything that suppliers depend on from me, I've given this support to them as well.”

For Ulyana, this underlines how critical it is to build strong business relationships in business, “I really believe in the power of networking, of friendship, of good relationships.”

One of these strong relationships has been with Max Logistik, which has been providing warehousing to Kormotech for over 10 years.

Ulyana shares the story of their working relationship, “At that time we didn't have warehouses. We didn't know where to put our products. I was driving from our factory to my city, thinking about what should be the solution and, after drinking a cup of coffee at the gas station, I saw a big billboard advertising a warehouse and I thought, ‘Wow, this could be some kind of opportunity’.”

She went to see the company and asked for 600 metres of warehousing, “Our relationship started from these 600 metres and now we have a modern, A-class warehouse where Kormotech has 18,000 metres. This is a good case of growing together.

“They always meet my needs. When I go to their office, the only thing I have to say is, ‘I have an idea’ and the manager pays attention and asks what I want. Once my answer was ‘Pink shelves!’. He knows that I'm not a very typical supply chain officer, not even in those days. I'm also about emotions.” A team that owns their tasks

With so many challenges both in Ukraine and from a global supply chain perspective, working together with the rest of the team at Kormotech is key. And this is something they’re very experienced at doing, with the longest servers in her team having worked with her for 18 years and the newest joiner having been on the team for 12 years.

Her leadership style is based on empowering her team to take ownership of their own areas of responsibility, “I think trust is the thing on which we build all our relationships. And freedom is also important. While I’m in charge of some changes, I delegate plenty of things to my team. They really have lots of space to make their own decisions and to take responsibility  from the very beginning to the very end of that result.

“For example, my team member who is responsible for the purchasing process can change suppliers and I have no doubt that if she is changing it, that means that she found a better proposal. There are plenty of things the team can control themselves – I think that’s a good motivation for the team. They don't need a mummy at work!”

“And we are also motivated by the bigger results – not only to finish the quarter or the financial year well, but in finding ways to make improvements and increase sustainability.”

A focus on sustainability

Sustainability and responsibility are key parts of our work at Kormotech.

Even before the war, we had been introducing energy-efficient production strategies across all our facilities. One example is our plant in Lithuania, which received a “green certificate” confirming that it runs on renewable energy sources. We’ve signed a long-term contract to supply the plant with electricity from wind farms, and it already operates its own solar power station. By 2027, we aim to produce 15% of our electricity from our own renewable sources.

We’ve also adopted Lean production principles to lower energy consumption and reduce waste. In some areas, we’ve managed to cut production waste by up to 10 times.

Another important step is heat recovery. In Lithuania, we reuse heat from the sterilization process, which saves around 10% of our gas use. In Ukraine, we recover heat from drying pet food, helping to cut gas use by about 15%.

We also pay attention to packaging. As demand grows for more sustainable solutions, we’re introducing eco-friendly options — such as smaller bags with zippers, thinner linings, and a reduced bottom area — which use fewer materials without compromising quality.

Beyond production, we’ve been promoting the humane treatment of animals since 2013. We support shelters in different regions, promote professional veterinary medicine, and encourage responsible pet parenting. Sustainability is a key concern for Kormotech because, as Ulyana says, “No matter that the war is outside my window, we are thinking about sustainability. We know that if we want to have the future, we need to think about it now.”

“There’s a double reality. We have to think about the current day, but at the same time we understand that not all of the world is at war, so they have a quite different reality. To be with them on the  same level, we need to work on this and that's why we are very eager in innovation, in sustainability, and in charity projects.”

Packaging is one area that has been adapted with sustainability in mind. The company conducted analysis of one of their packs and found out that reducing its height, wall thickness and base thickness was possible without compromising product quality or volume. These savings meant lower costs for customers as well as the use of less material in packaging, to support their sustainability agenda.

Maintaining stability in uncertain times

While focused on the future in terms of innovation and sustainability, there are some areas where   investing in the future is a challenge due to the ongoing war. Using technology such as AI – something most growing companies with strong cashflow are privileged to be able to plan for – is a challenge here.

Kormotech uses advanced equipment and high production standards to make their products, and human input is key to the process in Ukraine – with good reason. “If we don't have electricity or another interruption happens, the concern is unmanned technology may not be able to function correctly.

“When the war has ended, we will be able to think about these useful new technologies, but meanwhile, my focus is to maintain a stable service level, to make sure that everything is working and to dive deep into the sales for Western Europe.”

Sales is a new area of responsibility for Ulyana in addition to her role as Global Chief Supply Chain Officer. And it’s a challenge she’s relishing, “I must say, it’s really nice to have this additional role because it helps me to have some kind of balance.

“Supply chain is like a bolt of electricity and you never know where you’re going to be headed, but sales is in a different climate. I can show the world our product – and I really believe in our product. For me, this is a big ambition and I would love to achieve the figures in our 2028 strategy.”

But back to automation for a moment. Kormotech is currently in the process of building another factory in Lithuania, where there’s more opportunity for automation. She explains, “We are going to have a packaging machine where all the packaging process will be automated and people will only be needed at the control points – at the beginning where there’s a worker putting in the recipe and at the end to check that everything is packed correctly on the pallet. I think it will be very efficient. In Lithuania, where there’s peace, we can do this.”

An era of entering new markets

With Ulyana now handling sales in Western Europe in addition to leading the supply chain, she’s thriving on this additional responsibility and finding that her deep knowledge of supply chain supports her to talk sales with potential customers, “I'm so sure about my product that I'm selling it like you would a baby food,” she explains – in other words, with the same level of care and understanding of what’s important to pet health as you’d expect from someone selling baby food.

“I know each raw material that is inside, believe me. If we’re talking about the lamb, it's coming from Australia. If we're speaking about some berries, they have to come from a particular location, because otherwise my laboratory will not allow them to be used in our factory. “I'm so proud to be the representative of a Ukrainian family business. I really believe that our potential partners can grow together with us, because growing together always makes a more powerful network.” When it comes to expanding into new markets, Ulyana points out that each country has its own customs and trends, “My first rule is respect to the culture where I want people to be my customers. And I also see that different countries have different shopping habits for pet food.

“Some countries have in their schedule once every three weeks to go to pet shops. They buy all the pet food for that period at once. Meanwhile, in another country, it's more about e-commerce. Whereas in Ukraine, we will not go to the shop specially for pet food. Shoppers are buying for the whole family on a shopping trip – buying something for the kitchen, something for the laundry, something for the pets.” By understanding these shopping trends, Ulyana finds it easier to make specific proposals for Kormotech’s customers in those countries – for example, by adapting pack sizes to shopping habits.

For countries where batch shopping is common, they’ve created multi-boxes of 48 pouches that will last weeks, whereas for the Ukrainian market, the product is packaged in smaller quantities, “If you understand such things, you can make tailor made decisions for the market.”

Leading the lifeblood of a company

At a time of geopolitical uncertainty and technological change, we wanted to ask Ulyana for perspective on the future of supply chain leadership – what skills she sees as essential for leaders today as we face into the future. She doesn’t hesitate before answering, “Flexibility and being  prepared for any scenario that’s around the corner. This is the main thing that should be in the heads of leaders.”

“I always say that the supply chain is the life blood of everything in the company, because if something goes wrong in this area, it will affect all the other systems.”

Ulyana and her team have had to use plenty of flexibility and creativity over the last three years to keep Kormotech’s production functioning and the company succeeding – from finding new transport routes that cross border blocks to finding new markets to supply and export to.

Given the complexities of sourcing raw materials and global logistics, something that Ulyana has learned is, “When you think that all the scenarios are already finished, it means it’s only the beginning of another book.”