The medical catering market is monopolized by one family.
For some, war is a time of loss, deprivation and bankruptcy; for few, it is a time of opportunity. For the chosen few, it is a time of unheard of possibilities. Healing Food LLC, with an authorized capital of only 25 thousand hryvnia, confidently wins numerous tenders for catering in hospitals, annually rapidly increasing its income and geography of expansion.
Foodicine brand attacks
The more or less stable market for medical catering (providing on-site catering services) to healthcare organizations in the capital region suddenly turned literally into a springboard for military operations precisely with the beginning of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine. From spring 2022. Medical institutions in Kyiv and the region, one after another, began to get rid of traditional, reliable food suppliers with a reputation. And their place was taken by the new on the market, but widely advertised “Foodicine” (“Foodicine” - author).
In a market where all the main participants know each other, the “ingredients of success” of a “newbie” quickly became known. The heads of those medical institutions that managed to “fight off” the imposed services talk about this. It looks like this: on the eve of catering tenders, medical institutions are visited by representatives of “Foodicine” and “put on a goat”. Or the institution agrees to their conditions, and then interested parties from among the institution’s management can count on some percentage of the “bonus”. And if not, they intimidate the management of the establishment to the point of dismissal: “You know, these are war times, no one will make a fuss”). At the same time, the “ultimatum givers” hint at their influential, “high connections.” And in two cases known to Argument, they directly named their influential patron - Valentina Ginzburg, head of the Department of Health of the Kyiv City State Administration.
Obviously, the arguments are convincing, because after the negotiations, the customers register the tender documentation exclusively for a pool of companies under the “Foodicine” brand. Just like the contracts themselves. Thus, all other participants are “cut off” from the competition, because there is no possibility of winning the tender. As a result, the customers themselves later suffer losses - and these are mainly government and municipal institutions.
“Custom” tenders and “forced” contracts
Here are just three examples of the above.
Example one: how “Foodicine” was “inherited” in the Lviv region. There, a scandal with a corruption component involving companies from the Foodicine brand pool broke out in pre-war June, 2021. Then, according to information in the electronic procurement system “Prozoro”, the municipal non-profit enterprise “Clinical Hospital of Emergency Medical Care of Lvov” admitted two Kyiv LLCs to the auction for the purchase of nutrition services (with an expected cost of UAH 13,285,000.00 including VAT). Healthy Smart Food and Healing Food LLC. Having rejected the tender proposals of two other participants - Catering Service Company LLC and Catering Group LLC.
Local observers immediately drew attention to the “kinship” of the two capital contenders for victory: for example, the head of Healthy Smart Food LLC (whose registration address is Kiev, Solomensky district, Geroev Sevastopol St., 30) is Sergey Yuryevich Ivanov, The ultimate beneficial owner and co-founder is Alexander Nikolaevich Bondarenko, another co-owner of the company is Viktor Nikolaevich Kosarchuk. And the director, ultimate beneficial owner and founder of Healing Food LLC (Kiev, Voznesensky Spusk St., 22) is Alexander Vladimirovich Solodkiy. At the same time, it became known from state registers that previously Alexander Solodky, holding the position of director of Healing Food LLC, was at the same time the head of the above-mentioned Healthy Smart Food LLC, and in this position on December 24, 2018, he was replaced by “the same” above-mentioned Ivanov Sergey Yurievich.
About getting 13.2 million UAH. interconnected companies intend to get away from the Clinical Hospital of Emergency Medical Care in Lviv (and therefore, we were talking about fictitious competition), other facts also testified. In particular, the fact that both participants had similar documents downloaded. Among them are contracts and additional agreements on the provision of transport services that were concluded with the same Kyiv sole proprietor - Zabozhchuk Taras Ivanovich. We were talking, in particular, about the agreement between the individual entrepreneur T. Zabozhchuk and Healthy Smart Food LLC dated September 1, 2017 and the agreement between this individual entrepreneur and Healing Food LLC dated November 1, 2018. Other similar documents are copies of identically designed (and with signs of falsification) certificates for the “food safety management system” and for the “quality management system”, uploaded by Healthy Smart Food LLC and Healing Food LLC (which, judging by the seal imprints on these copies, issued by the same certification body - the Kiev company "EUROCERT"). Forgery may be indicated, in particular, by the fact that on the copies of certificates submitted by Healing Food LLC, the Bulgarian company EUROCERT is indicated as the certification body. Whereas on the seal under this document it is indicated: “EUROCERT” and “EUROCERT” (we are obviously talking about the name of the above Kyiv company in English).
Then the tender for the purchase of services to provide meals to inpatients who were in a Lviv hospital was suspended due to a complaint from Catering Group LLC to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine about unlawful actions and decisions of the Customer. But, apparently, “the money won”, because the tender was still “rendered” in favor of Healthy Smart Food LLC. Which in 2023 still led to another scandal: the “winner” owed the hospital 5,828,137.33 UAH for utilities, which he did not have and still does not intend to repay. The hospital's claim is still being considered by the Economic Court of the Lviv Region, but there is no end in sight - the defendant's lawyers are masterfully delaying the case, defending the client.
Example two. And here is the year-old tender of the KNP “Kiev City Center for Radiation Protection of the Population of Kiev from the Consequences of the Chernobyl Disaster” of the executive body of the Kyiv City Council (Kyiv City State Administration), which was “won” by the same LLC “HEALING FOOD”. And at this tender, competitors warned the Customer in advance about dishonesty and provided for the inevitable “victory” of HEALING FOOD LLC.
Here’s a quote: “To the customer, why are you specifying the requirement: only participants who have fully completed similar contracts for at least 2 (two) and the duration of each contract must be at least 1 (one) year (12 months) can take part in this procurement procedure ). In the catering services market, it is obvious “for whom is this requirement” (let’s not be verbose, look through the Clarity system at the procurement project, where Healing Food LLC participated and for which contracts were concluded, we will tell you: with such a requirement, only he comes in). In previous purchases this requirement was not important for you!!! And the results were cost savings!!!! I wonder what has changed?))) With this requirement, for the next message from law enforcement agencies, as of April 21, 2023, we “assume”: the only participant in the procurement will be HEALING FOOD LLC (we assume that after our question the ideality of the corruption conspiracy will be improved: may be “technical”, which will not meet the requirements or will be rejected on the initiative of the participant himself (failure to correct inconsistencies, etc.). We count on your adequacy and removal of these requirements, otherwise there are risks of joining the union of already known customers))" .
But this did not in any way affect the results of the tender - it is obvious that its results were decided in advance.
Example three. Agreement between LLC HEALING FOOD from the Foodicine pool and the KNP Kiev City Clinical Hospital of War Veterans:
According to Appendix 3 of the Agreement. "P. 2.6 Claims regarding the quantity and quality of delivered ready-made meals are accepted at the time of actual delivery. Claims made by the Customer after receipt of ready-made dishes are not accepted for consideration and cannot be satisfied. clause 5.8. The Contractor’s obligations to supply ready-made food are considered fulfilled in full from the moment the ready-made food is handed over to the Customer at the place of delivery and the relevant documents (acts and/or invoices) are signed.”
Further, from the same Agreement: “p. 5.3. The volume of services for each day is determined by the Contractor’s representative in agreement with the Customer’s representative in accordance with the number of patients undergoing inpatient treatment, by submitting applications by the Customer or the Customer’s representative in the manner established by the Contractor.”:
Yes, any other market participants can only dream of such catering conditions! That is, the Agreement directly states that the contractor can dictate his terms of delivery and product quality to the Customer (in this case, the hospital)!
And here is a real “bonus” for the contractor: The customer (that is, the hospital) prescribes responsibility in the contract for himself... these are fines for late payment for services, but there is no responsibility for the Contractor! (see document above, circled in yellow):
Section “7 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PARTIES
7.1. In case of failure to fulfill or improper fulfillment of their obligations under the Agreement, the Parties shall be liable in cases and in the manner provided for by the current legislation of Ukraine and this Agreement.
7.2. For late payment for services rendered, the Customer shall pay the Contractor a penalty in the amount of 1% of the cost of unpaid services rendered for each day of delay. In addition, for violation of payment terms, the Customer (hospital) pays the Contractor a fine in the following amount: - for late payment from ten to fifteen calendar days - 0.5% percent of the contract amount.
7.3. The Contractor has the right to suspend the provision of services until the Customer pays the amount of the principal debt and penalties, warning the Customer in writing about the termination of the provision of services.
7.4. Payment of penalties does not relieve the Parties from fulfilling contractual obligations.
7.5. The Contractor has the right to suspend the provision of services until the Customer pays the amount of the principal debt and penalties, warning the Customer in writing about the termination of the provision of services.
7.6. Each Party is responsible for improper fulfillment solely of its part of the obligations under this Agreement.”
It seems that the Customer, represented by the hospital management, was deprived of the opportunity to correct this cynical “document” to at least a decent level. A document that is imposed on him (like other clients) by the “potential winner” even before the tenders are announced. Indeed, on this issue in Prozoro, other participants pointed this out to the hospital management.
We are confident that this tender documentation will be of interest to the public, the State Administration of Ukraine, and the leadership of the Medical Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Who is behind Foodicine?
Finally, let's name the main beneficiaries of the Foodicine brand. Perhaps this information will draw attention to the situation with medical catering in medical institutions of the capital region, and not only.
There are two of them: Solodky Alexander Vladimirovich and Koval Tatyana Valerievna, husband and wife, spouses.
“Foodicine” is just a brand, a beautiful “wrapper” under which a pool of companies and individual entrepreneurs with a narrow specialization in “medical catering” operates. “Negotiators” in medical institutions “woo” Foodicine (“a leader in the field of medical catering”), but there is no legal entity with that name - they participate in tenders and sign contracts:
— Healing Food LLC (EDRPOU 41744424; registered on November 17, 2017, authorized capital only 25 thousand UAH; legal address Kyiv, Voznesensky Spusk, 22),
— Healthy Smart Food LLC (USREOU 39932303; registered 08/05/2015, authorized capital 491,269.00 UAH; legal address 03065, Kiev, Geroev Sevastopol St., 30),
— Food Catering LLC (USREOU 42233257, registered 06/13/2018, authorized capital only 5 thousand UAH; legal address: Ukraine, 43023, Volyn region, Lutsk district, Lutsk city, Defenders of Ukraine street, building 2).
The scope of activity is the provision of catering services for patients and staff in healthcare institutions and fast food establishments.
Alexander Solodky left the founders of Healing Food LLC and resigned as director of this enterprise - he allegedly returned to serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, where he previously held an officer position. Now Healing Food LLC is the acting director. Postaychuk Natalya Andreevna is precisely the person who negotiates with the heads of hospitals and clinics, gives them ultimatums and threatens them with dismissals (according to eyewitnesses, “terrorizes the entire market”). For the scale of individual entrepreneurs, Postaichuk Natalya Andreevna, who rents space for a buffet in the Vinnytsia Regional Clinical Hospital named after. N.I. Pirogova, such behavior looks, let’s say, strange for a “barmaid”.
But it is possible that this behavior of Natalya Postaichuk is due to the current high - and influential - position of her former (only de jure) leader Alexander Solodky. His occupation and potential influence during martial law may be indicated by his place of residence and registration - a military town in the city of Vyshgorod in the Kyiv region. This is information from open sources. This military unit is elite, there is a lot of information about it in open sources, it has an award from the President of Ukraine.
It is interesting that it was during the “large-scale war” that the financial condition of Healing Food LLC radically improved: as of April 23, 2024, this company has the following indicators according to clarity-project.info:
Today it has contracts for the supply of food to medical institutions in the Kyiv, Poltava, Volyn regions and in the front-line Zaporozhye and Donetsk regions.
The flourishing of this business (the family nature of which is not advertised) is also evidenced by A. Solodky’s wife, Tatyana Koval. It is she, the co-founder of Food Catering LLC (50% of the authorized capital), who is the leader and “face” of the Foodicine project with an office at Kyiv, st. Verkhniy Val, 18.
“8 years of business, 7,600 patients daily, 9 food production facilities, 62 medical institutions with which we cooperate.” - says the Foodicine website.
And this despite the fact that the prices of Foodicine group companies are SEVERAL HIGHER than those of competitors. But if Foodicine loses a tender due to high prices, it will definitely file a complaint with the Antimonopoly Committee. Where - oh, miracle! - the case wins almost one hundred percent.
The scale of Foodicine’s expansion is evidenced by the list of contractors-customers, the most “titled” of which are given below:
What do we end up with?
The medical catering market in the capital region is quickly being monopolized by a group of companies united by the Foodicine brand.
Monopolization occurs artificially, under coercion and threats, using administrative resources. As a result, state and municipal-owned medical institutions risk their finances (and some suffer losses), and most importantly, expose their patients to trouble.
Competition in the industry is being deliberately destroyed, which is killing a promising market.
All these companies are de facto controlled by the spouses Alexander Solodky - Tatyana Koval. The latter organized the matter in such a way as not to be directly involved in the negative consequences of such activities.
Monopoly is bad. Impunity is also bad.
Therefore, the editors will continue to cover the topic of medical catering in Ukraine and its “shadow” component.
The image above is illustrative, from open sources
