Fish, love, and war

Levan Kantaria manages seafood operations for the premium food retailer WineTime, headquartered in Kyiv. Mr Kantaria was born in Kyiv and studied law at the Humanitarian University of Tbilisi. He then worked in distribution at SAVSERVICE and four years ago, he switched to his current role managing the fish and seafood operations at Asnova’s WineTime subsidiary. In this article, he discusses the challenges the company has been facing in wartime. This is the second in a series of articles in the Eurofish Magazine dedicated to seafood businesses in Ukraine and how they work and survive during the war.

The rst WineTime retail shop opened thirteen years ago, and today the company owns 33 shops across 15 regions of Ukraine, cumulatively employing over four hundred people. e stores sell a wide range of premium food products, including seafood. e company also has a separate farm, named Trostynka, that raises cows, sheep, and goats, and grows organic vegetables. ey also run a bakery. Some of their store location have their own food courts with chefs who can take anything from the shop’s shelves—from sh to sausages—and cook it for their clientele. Fourteen of their locations have what the company has named “sushi-points,” where there is a sushi kitchen in the shop. Eight of their stores have fresh sh counters and about twenty sell oysters. Eight years ago, WineTime opened a web-shop o ering a wide range of products.

Alcohol represents about 60% of the company’s turnover, and the remaining 40% is comprised primarily of gastronomy. Most of the sh sold in their shops is imported from all over the world. e supply of local sh depends upon the areas open to shing during the war. Currently, the main locally sourced species are Danube shad and, occasionally, carp.

Guests get culinary inspiration and expert advice

Many Ukrainian consumers consider buying sh to be an impulse purchase. WineTime’s attractive fresh sh counters with a colourful variety of sh and seafood play a major role in sales. Knowledgeable shop-assistants, who can inform customers about where the sh comes from, how to cook it, and which garnish accompanies it best, have encouraged sh sales.

Mr Kantaria claims his company is number one in Ukraine for several reasons. ere are many similar chains that have more shops than we do, he says, but our level of expertise and service is second to none. One may say that eight shops with fresh sh counters is not a lot, but every shop assistant working at the counter is an educated expert. We have various types of sh on our counters from Label Rouge salmon, trout, tuna, sh loins, and llets to a variety of exotic sh. Our shop assistants will tell you what is good about each sh, where it originates, whether it is wild or farmed, what the fat content is, or whether it is good for your children. ey can advise you on the best cooking method and wine pairing. Not many chains can provide such a comprehensive service—at most you will hear if the sh is fresh or not. Our shop assistants get performance reviews on a regular basis, and not many other stores which sell sh can o er such a high level of expertise, he adds.

WineTime’s online store mainly o ers canned sh, salted and smoked sh products, and caviar. e company’s team hopes that one day they will be able to sell fresh sh online, but demand is currently quite limited. e company hopes that this will change, and that increasing trust in the quality of WineTime’s products will help to e ect this change.

The impact of war and the pandemic on imports and retail sales

Since the beginning of the war in February 2022, supply chains have been disrupted. ough even before the war transport of sh by air was limited, the war has now made it impossible. ese days everything is carried by road in trucks, but even these deliveries were paused for some time in the beginning. ere are not many seafood importers in Ukraine and some of these companies supply restaurants and had deliveries every week.

e restaurant business was badly a ected by the war, so the importers started delivering once every two weeks. e importers who supply mass markets, including big retail chains and smaller chains like WineTime, maintain weekly deliveries, and supply primarily farmed sh such as Norwegian salmon and trout, Turkish seabass, sea bream, and trout.

Before the pandemic, WineTime was ranked in the top three oyster retailers in Ukraine, but Covid was a “punch in the gut,” says Mr Kantaria. At the beginning of the war, sales dropped even more, as oysters are not an essential product according to government guidelines. Besides, most oysterlovers either ed abroad or went o to war, he says.

During the rst few months of the war, the costs for Ukrainian consumers rose dramatically due to high import prices. Many foreign suppliers were afraid to go even as far as to Poland, and there was an enormous food de cit. A partner in Latvia was one of the rst to o er WineTime a helping hand. In March 2022, when the situation on the front was very uncertain and many were fearful of Kyiv’s invasion, the company provided a deferred payment system and supplied canned sh. At the time Kyivans were living in fear—some left the city, and those who did not ee were stockpiling. e shelves at the stores were left bare. ankfully, the supply chain slowly began to recover and now it has almost returned to normal in terms of both availability of products and sales revenues.

Volunteering helps overcome war

When the war began, Mr Kantaria explains, we had to stop our normal work, but our shops remained open. From the very rst days we reorganised our corporate café into a volunteer kitchen, and we started giving food to the defenders, rescue services, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine (commonly known as ZSU). Every day the kitchen prepared one thousand meals which were made from the company’s own products. Dennis Galushko, the café’s director, organised and lead the volunteer kitchen. When Russian troops were kicked out of Kyiv Region, Mr Galushko, a father of three, joined the Azov Brigade and lost his life in combat. In the company’s headquarters there is a memorial wall with photographs of him and his colleagues who lost their lives in the war.

All the pro ts made by one of the wine brands that WineTime distributes are directed exclusively towards car purchases for the army. To date, four cars have been purchased and donated to ZSU. Not only WineTime, but all companies of Asnova Holding are actively involved in volunteer activities. Mr Kantaria himself participates in volunteer projects in addition to WineTime’s e orts. He was personally awarded with a medal by Ukraine’s minister of defence for his activities.

e situation was exceedingly di cult in autumn 2022, when Russia started to destroy critical Ukrainian infrastructure, destroying the power supply in many cities all over Ukraine. WineTime purchased power generators and Starlinks and invited people to the stores, o ering them a space to work, charge their phones, enjoy some tea, and spend time in a space with light and heat.

The WineTime store located in the city centre of Zaporizhzhia was completely destroyed by a Russian missile. Luckily, the attack took place during the night when there were no people inside. The shop’s employees were offered jobs in other stores of the chain, and those who agreed to re-locate to other cities are now working and WineTime pays for their housing.

Mixing business and social responsibility with a love for life to survive

In spite of these di culties, the company continues to expand: recently a new store in Uzhgorod opened, and soon there will be another opening in Rivne. ere are also plans to open stores elsewhere in Europe. ese are very di cult times, says Mr Kantaria, but we are saving workplaces for our people. We are developing and, as of today, we are one of the most stable companies, paying wages on time and providing workplaces. Our business and volunteer jobs are equally important to us. Mr Kantaria told Euro sh much more about sh, business, volunteering, and the war. roughout the interaction, his love for his job, family, his fellow citizens, and for Ukraine was abundantly clear.

Aleksandra Petersen, aleksandra@euro sh.dk