Aftermath of Russian strikes: Ranok publishers will need three years to recover

The Ranok publishing house will need at least three years to recover after Russia destroyed millions of its books. The company has capped salaries, negotiated discounts with landlords, and is diversifying its logistics operations.

Source: Ranok CEO Viktor Kruhlov

Quote: "We agreed with the team to temporarily cap their salaries and wrote to our landlords asking for discounts on warehouse rent. Almost all of them have agreed. We drew up a reduced budget, then cut it again and then again to balance our spending."

We are negotiating with banks over loans. So far without success. Banks are not interested in future books and intellectual property rights as collateral. This is a huge problem that needs to be raised at government level."

Details: Kruhlov said the publishing house is asking its partners, suppliers, authors and literary agencies if it can defer payments and royalties. He said they have been "understanding".

Ranok intends to further diversify its delivery routes and book storage locations. "It's very expensive, but there's no other option," Kruhlov said.

He added that financial issues are particularly pressing, as is the issue of paper imports. There are also pressing legal issues, "because in the state's view, military risks do not constitute force majeure".

An emergency response team was set up the day after a major fire at an automated logistics centre, Kruhlov noted. Around 8 million books were destroyed by the fire, which was caused by a Russian strike.

"Firefighters were still battling the fire. It wasn't fully extinguished until the seventh day after the strike," he said.

"Ranok has always been about the future. This is not about whether we will recover, but how and how long it will take. We estimate that it will take at least three to five years to recover fully," Kruhlov added.

Background:

• On 1 August, Russian forces attacked a warehouse in Kharkiv that was used by the Ranok publishing house and the KnyhoLand bookshop chain.
• On 16 August, Russian strikes caused a major fire at the Petrivka book market near Pochaina metro station in Kyiv's Obolonskyi district.

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