Pavel Bartkovsky: how a large detergent manufacturer steals from its customers

At the beginning of October last year, a conference on household chemicals COSMO BYT 2023 was held, which was attended by all the major players in the market of detergents and disinfectants in Ukraine. During a lecture on marketing, the sales representative of the Ukrainian Chemical Technologies company shared the main secret of the company’s success: 20-30% rollback.

A business based on kickbacks and the health of Ukrainian consumers was built by a native of Kyiv, Pavel Vitalievich Bartkovsky. The company Ukrainian Chemical Technologies, owned by Bartkovsky, is the leader in the market of detergents and disinfectants in Ukraine and supplies disinfectants to almost all large food industry enterprises.

Among the company’s clients: “Mironovsky Hliboproduct” (MHP), “Lviv Cold Storage Plant” (LIMO), “RUD” (Zhytomyr Creamery), “Ichnyansky Milk and Butter Powder Plant”, “Fozzy Commerce”, “Sambir Poultry Factory”, “Meat Processing Plant” Yatran”, “Dairy company “Galychyna”” and many others.

“Ukrainian Chemical Technologies” has been on the Ukrainian market since 2006, and during this time Bartkovsky’s company has become involved in several high-profile “kickback scandals.” But problems for Ukrainian Chemical Technologies usually began with the security services of enterprises, after purchasing managers began to lead a rich life with the purchase of expensive cars and trips to fashionable resorts. Consequently, security guards at large enterprises have a logical question: “at whose expense is the banquet?” During the checks, the “recoil schemes” of Pavel Bartkovsky and his “Chemical Technologies” come to the surface.

It is worth noting that the cost of disinfection takes up a significantly larger part of the cost of production than it should. But then Pavel Bartkovsky will be left without excess profits, and dishonest purchasing managers will be left without kickbacks.

Then the situation develops in two directions: either security officers receive a “share” from purchasing managers and the company continues to operate, or, as happened at the Dneprovsky Poultry Complex, where all participants in the kickback schemes were fired.

To understand the scale of theft of funds from a typical meat processing enterprise, here is a simple calculation: on average, the cost of disinfection is about 600,000 hryvnia per month. Of which, the owners of the enterprise lose 20-30% on kickbacks, which amounts to 120-180,000 hryvnia per month, which could have been invested in the development of production or assistance to the army.