Winner Group, one of Ukraine’s largest car importers, is planning to launch five dealerships in Ukraine over the next two years, the company announced at a press conference on June 27.
Winner Group Founder and CEO Ivan Hynansky made the announcement at the grand opening of the company’s new Jaguar Land Rover dealership, which is sited near Kyiv’s Boryspil International Airport.
Hynansky, along with General Director of Winner Imports Ukraine Petro Rondiak and Andrew Jago, Jaguar’s sales director for the European Region, praised the new building’s features, and spoke of the importance of their partnership in terms of investment opportunities in the Ukrainian auto market today.
According to Rondiak, the road-track facilities to test-drive vehicles at the center and the materials used to build it were the best in their class. The time and effort that went into building the 7,656-square-meter center, which also has 2,540 square meters of underground parking, is a signal of Winner Group Ukraine’s faith in the future growth and success of the Ukrainian car market, Rondiak said.
Hynansky, who opened his business in Ukraine 25 years ago, was full of praise for his Ukrainian workforce.
“Ukraine has a highly educated population – better educated than in the U.S. Better educated than in Europe,” Hynansky said. “It’s got people that care. It’s got people that are industrious.”
He said Winner has been “making consistent investments, developing an environment where people can be successful, developing an environment where people can live normally.”
Rondiak said the building exemplifies Winner Group’s values, proving that “a transparent, honest and open business,” can be built in Ukraine.
Jago said he saw an upward trend in the Ukrainian automobile industry, with 600,000 vehicles expected to be imported into Ukraine this year.
Of those, only 100,000 are expected to be new cars – a far cry for a country of 42 million people. Ukraine’s peak was in 2008, when Ukrainians bought 623,000 new cars and almost as many used ones.
The country plummeted to a historic low after Ukraine’s EuroMaidan Revolution that drove Viktor Yanukovych from power on Feb. 22, 2014 and after Russia invaded the country.
But despite the difficult auto market environment, Jaguar is responding with its own investments and the introduction of the new models, he said.
These include the Land Rover Discovery and the award-winning Range Rover Velar, which drove its global sales up last year by 2 percent, to 614,309 vehicles. The company’s revenues for the year also increased, by 6 percent, to 25.8 billion pounds, and it made $2 billion in pre-tax profit, Jago said.
In the last 18 months, sales have been driven by the all-new Jaguar E-Pace, the Jaguar I-Pace, an all-electric SUV, and the Range Rover Sport, which is also available as a hybrid.
“I-pace is the world’s first fully electric premium SUV – a game changing vehicle, technologically advanced, and already attracting thousands of customers all around the world,” Jago said. Starting in 2020, all Jaguar models will have an option for electric or hybrid technology.
That should be good for Jaguar’s business in Ukraine: To promote electric cars, Ukraine recently decided not to charge the 20 percent value-added tax and to waive the 109-euro duty on all imported electric cars.
The Winner Group operates 32 dealerships in Ukraine, and accounts for 25 percent of Jaguar Land Rover sales in Europe. Jaguar has 20 partners in Europe, with Winner Group being the exclusive dealer of the brand in Ukraine.
