EBRD-backed relocation helps Ukraine’s TM Ideyka shift production to Kalush

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Ideyka relocation to Kalush

Highlights

TM Ideyka relocates production from Dnipro to a new 4,000-square-metre facility in Kalush, starting operations in August 2024 due to security risks.
With EBRD and Small Business Impact Fund support, the company recovers one-third of key relocation costs, addressing logistical and workforce challenges after staff relocation remains below 10 percent.
Production capacity exceeds 320,000 units per month amid rising wartime demand, increased exports to Europe via Poland, and a focus on expanding in markets like Germany.

Relocation support and production reset

As reported by the EBRD, TM Ideyka receives relocation assistance through the bank’s programme in Ukraine after the full-scale war makes safe and stable production in Dnipro harder to sustain. The company, operated by Kiddi-Co PE and founded by Olena Yelahina in 2007, shifts manufacturing to Kalush in western Ukraine, where all production departments begin operating in August 2024.

The move follows mounting security and commercial pressure. Kiddi-Co’s facilities in Dnipro are located near railway infrastructure and close to areas that have already twice come under heavy shelling, while some European partners become increasingly reluctant to work with a business so near the front line.

With support from the EBRD and its Small Business Impact Fund, the company later recovers one-third of its key relocation costs. The process includes finding and preparing new premises, transporting and installing equipment, and setting up engineering systems and production processes.

Staffing remains a major challenge because fewer than 10 per cent of production employees relocate to Kalush. The company rebuilds much of its workforce locally, helped by the availability of experienced specialists after the closure of a large petrochemical plant, while relocated employees temporarily assist with training new hires.

Capacity, exports and wartime demand

TM Ideyka now operates a 4,000-square-metre automated production facility with capacity of more than 320,000 units per month. The new base helps the company create safer working conditions, maintain uninterrupted production, optimise logistics, move closer to export markets, and protect and expand its client base.

The business develops from a distributor of stationery and children’s goods into a producer of paint by numbers kits, diamond mosaics, acrylic paints, canvases, puzzles and printed children’s periodicals. It launches the first Ukrainian-made paint by numbers kits in 2014 and later builds full-cycle production, product safety certifications and the Green Crane label, while describing itself as the largest producer of paint by numbers kits in eastern Europe.

Sales grow during the war as consumers turn to creative activities for calmness, and demand for patriotic paint by numbers kits rises sharply. The company is also expanding exports, shipping European orders through its operation in Poland and building its presence in markets including Germany, while upgrading its website infrastructure to support international growth.

Looking ahead, Kiddi-Co plans to raise production capacity, strengthen its brand abroad, improve quality standards through certification, and make production more environmentally responsible.

Our earlier article on heightened sovereign borrowing risks in a higher-rate environment explained how prolonged geopolitical tensions and elevated fiscal spending can strain public finances and worsen refinancing conditions. We also noted that the Russia-Ukraine war and other conflicts have fueled energy and food price shocks, keeping inflation pressures elevated and forcing governments—especially in emerging and frontier markets—to operate with less fiscal headroom.

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