Polyurethane supplier OSV Technology has opened for business at a facility in Poland just weeks after being forced to abandon its headquarters in Oleshky, Ukraine, by the Russian invasion.
Oleshky, located just east of the city of Kherson — one of the regions hit hardest by the invasion — has been home to OSV, a supplier of PU dosing systems, materials and equipment, since the company opened in 2006.
"We still cannot believe it became possible in 2022, but indeed it's not a nightmare and we can't simply wake up and get rid of it," OSV officials noted in a March 3 statement on its website. "Instead our army must defend our land and our people from the Russian aggression."
OSV has continued to update its customers and supporters since then on its website.
"As of ... March 11, our enterprise is still located on the territory occupied by the Russian army. In this situation, our priority is the health and life of our employees. Therefore, we cannot yet return to work on the production of dosing systems, nor ship raw materials, nor engage in the manufacture of products from polyurethanes and silicones," it wrote.
Starting on March 17, the company began shipping orders from its warehouse in Rybnik, Poland, to support the company and its employees still in Ukraine.
"Most of the staff are at homes in Oleshky or have evacuated to western Ukraine, which is relatively safe at the moment," Managing Director Alexey Kuznetsov said in a letter updating the company's status. "They have food and are taking care of their families."
Three staff members, Oleg Vaikhanskyi, Yuriy Shafran and senior engineer Anton Ivanov, have moved to Poland and are trying to restart the business building dosing machinery there. The Polish subsidiary can make payments and take orders.
OSV is requiring prepayment for all items and says it has limited capacity for deliveries currently but hopes to resume deliveries in retail volumes "as soon as possible."
Staff at the facility in Rybnik are resuming maintenance of OSV equipment and production of new metering and mixing machines.
"The most important thing that the polyurethane community can do to help our nation and our country is to immediately stop any business and relationships with Russia. And of course, after we return to the normal life and our usual job, we would need new orders for OSV metering and mixing machines," Kuznetsov wrote. "We'd like to thank our customers, suppliers and business partners who support us during these terrible times."