SVOD is a Luhansk-based chemical company that produces household cleansers, pipe cleaning reagents, heat transfer equipment, and anti-scale filters that have been historically sold only in Ukraine.

USAID’s Economic Resilience Activity (ERA), which works to strengthen businesses and economic growth in eastern Ukraine, helped SVOD develop marketing tools to secure foreign partners and expand to new markets, including Europe. Then, in March, when the Government of Ukraine imposed a COVID-19 lockdown, forcing many businesses to close, the firm had to choose whether to respond quickly to the current market challenges or send its workers on furlough.

The country urgently needed antiseptics, so the company decided to seize the opportunity. In just two weeks, SVOD transitioned production and filled a market gap by pivoting to produce antiseptics. Doing so also allowed it to retain all of its 130 employees.

“We decided to produce alcohol-based antiseptics for hands and surfaces, as we received numerous requests for such products from our customers - businesses that had not stopped working and needed to undertake disinfection measures,” said  Mykhailo Ivonin, founder of SVOD, which belongs to Promdeks-Ukraine.

With prices for raw material rapidly rising, SVOD had a production advantage because it has its own laboratory and produces its own packaging. It took only a few days to create the antiseptic in the SVOD laboratory, and another week for permits. Soon SVOD was offering hand and surface sanitizers ranging in size from 50 milliliters to five liters, sold online to customers across Ukraine. 

SVOD now cooperates with "Lisstalprom" company based in Lysychansk, Lugansk Oblast on development of "disinfection tunnel" -- a tunnel that could disinfect customers at entrances to public buildings, subway stations, and stores, where there are large streams of people. Negotiations are ongoing with local government officials from several Ukrainian cities.The company is also awaiting government approval to have their disinfectants used in places such as schools and transportation hubs.