Volodymyr Krupko: In 2025, we see ourselves among the three largest suppliers in Ukraine

As part of a special media project of the Energy Club business community, Tolk Group CEO Volodymyr Krupko gave a "Big Interview" to host Andriy Kulikov. Here are the highlights of the conversation. Read the full text of the interview on the Energy Club website.

...When a critical situation arises, we often rush to the aid of those we consider weaker, forgetting about ourselves. How has Tolk Group ensured its own capability in these critical times?

First of all, it is the team. Because even business and its performance are not as important as people: it is their hands that make the whole business happen. 
Secondly, it is our customers. Indeed, during the years we worked before the war, we managed to earn their trust. And when we received a lot of calls when no one understood the situation when people asked: what's next, what will happen to electricity, how should I work? Later, we managed to unite and reassure our customers and retain the customer base. 

How do you keep in touch with your customers, apart from the actual delivery of services? To what extent do you take their feedback into account in shaping your strategy? 

This is a really broad question, so I'll try to be brief. There are different categories of consumers. There are categories of consumers who are not even very interested in what is happening with the price of electricity.

That is, they have entered into an agreement with us, the energy supply continues, and they are satisfied that everything is fine and do not delve into the details. 
There is another category of consumers whom we contact ourselves: large consumers. We have to keep in touch with them, in particular with the power engineers of these companies, so that our specialists, those who are engaged in forecasting, can correctly build the balance of purchases and, accordingly, the balance of electricity consumption to minimize imbalances. In other words, we take the initiative there ourselves. 
There is also a third category of consumers, where business leaders are really concerned about the result, fighting for every penny of their efficiency. This is our so-called VIP segment. We have separate groups of managers who deal with this category and communicate directly with business leaders. And this is quite an interesting communication, by the way, when the person on the other side, your client, is actually interested in you, asking you what happened to Energoatom, what happened to exports, and how will it affect my electricity price? This is such an interesting communication, by the way. 
To summarize, we conduct a survey of our customers once a month. Separately, our call center makes calls, selects specific categories, and makes a snapshot of the level of customer satisfaction with the work of our managers and our companies. And recently, they have just given me the latest result for the last month - the level of satisfaction is over 80 percent. This is a perfect indicator, in fact.

It's really very good, and if you try to ask yourself, what is your level of satisfaction with the results?

In short, I would like to do more. The plans were - and still are - quite ambitious, and I hope we will be able to achieve them: in 2025, we see ourselves as one of the three largest suppliers in Ukraine. This means both in terms of efficiency and the volume of electricity to be traded. 
As for the overall picture, we cannot say that we were lucky, but the fact that our core business is concentrated in Volyn and Zakarpattia certainly gave us a certain advantage. I am constantly in touch with my colleagues, including those responsible for energy supply in the eastern and northern regions of the country, which have been hit hard. Their situation is, of course, much worse. And on the one hand, we have better conditions, but on the other hand, this puts a certain burden on us: we are expected to do a lot - both to reduce receivables and to collect payments from the population as if you were not so badly affected by the war.

When you, Mr. Volodymyr, started talking about how much the war has affected your colleagues in other regions, your tone even changed. I feel that you are concerned about it. In fact, Ukrainian power engineers have shown not only the ability to solve certain problems on their own but also to help each other. To what extent do you currently cooperate with other companies from other regions in this vein?

We are all, as they say, in the same boat. There are not so many universal service providers, 23 of them if I'm not mistaken. Therefore, each market participant knows his or her colleague, as they say, by sight. 
Of course, I keep in touch with everyone, and the level of cooperation is evidenced by recent joint letters. We write a lot of joint letters of appeal together, and all the AMPs, except for the state-owned ones (they must be apolitical), sign and seal these letters, whether they are addressed to the President of Ukraine or the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. I think this indicates a certain level of cooperation. 

There are several important charitable and social initiatives of the Tolk Group. For example, at the beginning of the heating season, the Group appealed to all those who cared to join the Do Good Deeds project. Please tell us about it.

The idea came up in May last year. It took a little time to digitally integrate this solution because it had to be simple so that anyone who wanted to help those in need could go to our website and do a good deed in one click - pay the bill of someone who is socially unable to do so.

We took on our clients in the Volyn and Zakarpattia regions who enjoy state benefits and subsidies. That is, those who have already been selected by the state and who really need help. So that the money would not be paid to some businessman who owes money for heating and lighting his swimming pool. 

I would like to recognize the activity of concerned citizens and our cooperation with the Swiss Aid to Ukraine Foundation. Thanks to them, more than nine hundred Ukrainian families have received assistance under this initiative. 

I also know that Tolk Group systematically helps the Future for Children Charitable Foundation, and the Future for Children Foundation, in turn, helps the Humanitarian Hub of Kharkiv CHPP-5. So, you help your colleagues in this way as well. What other charitable and volunteer movements does Tolk support?

We have carried out many initiatives. You know, I may sound unfashionable, but those who help and do it sincerely try not to talk about it. Many initiatives have been taken by us, including a computer class in a gymnasium, assistance in arranging a social center for children, gifts for the holidays, cooperation with the Society for the Deaf (UTOG), and support for students... Thank God if we have been able to help someone.

That's quite understandable, Mr. Volodymyr, although I always say that we should talk about good deeds because it encourages others. So far, we have been talking mainly about individual consumers, but what does Tolk Group offer to businesses?

We have different tariffs that were born out of an understanding of market needs. And recently we took the initiative and offered our customers a "0" tariff, which means that the margin of the electricity supplier was minimized. We did this so that Ukrainian businesses - small, medium, and large - could go through a difficult period with the lowest possible costs. That's why we introduced this "0" tariff. In general, our product offer is quite rich, a whole "tariff menu", even ending with the supply of both electricity and gas to our consumers. That is, each consumer can choose exactly what is acceptable to them from a fairly liberal, customized menu.

Since September 2022, Tolk Group has been a member of the United Nations Global Compact in Ukraine. Tell us more about it.

The United Nations Global Compact is quite widely represented in Ukraine, and it includes powerful players in various business areas. All members of this international community are committed to directing their activities in accordance with the principles of the Global Compact in four areas: human rights protection, labor relations, environmental protection, and anti-corruption. We work in all these areas, with a special focus on anti-corruption activities. 
All the contracts we sign in the Tolk Group contain an anti-corruption component, and we position our business as open. And we do not support any form of corruption in any way, we have zero tolerance for it. That is why we joined this international initiative to reaffirm our position.

What was the most difficult task you had to solve in connection with the full-scale russian invasion?

It is difficult to single out one. Perhaps a set of issues related to the level of payments, and non-payments.
And if we talk about the population, the debtors are not primarily grandparents - they pay everything in the first place - but the owners of "fortresses" and swimming pools, and the number of their debts to 2-5-10 thousand hryvnias.

Mr. Volodymyr, if it is not a commercial secret, do you plan to increase the Group's revenue, and if so, what kind of increase, despite the very difficult conditions we are all facing now?

We are planning to increase our service offerings. We want to develop our communication service - the front office that communicates mainly with our customers. By the end of the year, this office should grow by 70 percent. Accordingly, these are additional jobs that we plan to open both at the head office and in the regions - of Zakarpattia and Volyn. Therefore, we have vacancies for those who are looking for work, including displaced persons. They can be found on professional portals and on the websites of our divisions.

Today, as we have mentioned, the word "unfortunately" was often used. I would like to finish by asking you to define what you mean by "fortunately" in a broader sense.

Fortunately, Mr. Andriy, we are healthy, alive, and communicating. I hope that the Victory is not far off. It will be very soon. Therefore, fortunately, I believe that everything will be fine in Ukraine, for our consumers and our business.