Darnitsa Included in TOP 30 Sustainable Companies according to Forbes

Forbes Ukraine presented the list of domestic companies that managed to restore their business to the level they had before the start of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation and even increase the production. The top 30 list of “unbreakable” ones included IT and retail companies, energy, agro-industrial and pharmaceutical businesses.

The rating was prepared instead of the traditional autumn list of 100 largest private companies of Ukraine.

The team of Forbes Ukraine developed the “sustainability rating scale” that determines the standing of the company at present, where 0 is awarded to liquidated companies and 10 to businesses that considerably increased their production, financial indicators and staff.

“Damaged, yet unbreakable. This is how big business can be characterized after seven months of the major war. During this period, Ukraine has lost more than a third of its economy. According to surveys, at the beginning of autumn, only every fifth enterprise managed to recover to the last year's level,” authors of the rating note.

The top 7 Ukrainian businesses include the security company “Ajax”, the IT companies “Intellias” and “GlobalLogic”, the agro-industrial complexes “Kernel” and “Zakhidnadraservis”, the fuel and energy complex “Galnaftogaz”, as well as the only pharmaceutical company in the rating – Darnitsa.

The rating was topped by Ajax, which relocated its factory two weeks after the start of the full-scale invasion, did not lose a single customer and did not postpone the launch of new products. They also invested in the Air Alert app. IT companies are the fastest to relocate and mostly work remotely, even from bomb shelters or from abroad. Therefore, Intellias and GlobalLogic also quickly recovered their initial performance indicators.

According to the authors of the rating, a high place on the list depends not only on skillful crisis management, but also on how close the company is to the front.

“Our assets and warehouses came off undamaged,” states Hlib Zahorii, the owner of Darnitsa Pharmaceutical Company. “Another reason for stability is our employees. All divisions of the company quickly mobilized, the lines did not stand idle for a single day, the company released a medicine that is new for it – potassium iodide. Our sales dynamics grew by 16.3% despite the market shrinking by 20%.”

Forbes Ukraine also notes that Darnitsa increased its market share in retail sales during the war. In January, its share was 4.1%, and according to the preliminary results of September, it is already 5.3%.

According to the results of the rating, the pharmaceutical company scored 8.7 points out of 10, i.e. it increased key financial indicators in UAH, maintained them in currency equivalents, maintained key production indicators and staff and is moving towards their increase.

It should be noted that for its rating Forbes Ukraine surveyed one and a half hundred of the largest Ukrainian private companies and banks, having learned about changes in the key indicators of their business since February 24.

The sustainability rating was calculated based on the information from the companies, as well as any other available information: the number of employees, physical volumes of production, the amount of taxes paid, the dynamics of network development, etc. Forbes noted that some businesses refused to provide information.