The Russian invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago was a devastating blow to its economy. Even regions not directly involved in the fighting suffered from a loss of workforce, power shortages and the blocking of export markets. Yet one major furniture company managed to double its exports during this time. Julia Lisovska, commercial director at Tivoli, and one of two sisters who have taken on leadership roles at the family owned firm, explains how. 

Lisovska is part of the second generation at Tivoli, which was set up by her parents, Vladyslav Lisovskyi and Alla Lisovska. She is one of many women who have come to the forefront of Ukrainian business since the start of the full-scale war in 2022, when thousands of men went to the front, and those that stayed behind were prevented from travelling abroad. 

Julia Lisovska, Tivoli's commercial director. Source: Tivoli. 

She has been at the company for 16 years, dealing mainly with sales, development and marketing. But she has become an increasingly prominent figure in the last two years – part of a broader trend seen across the economy since the start of the war. Julia’s sister Alla Lisovska also played an important role in promoting the business on the global stage. 

Lisovska believes that while women are legally equal to men in Ukraine, the country previously was “not so feminist” as some European countries. However, this changed since the start of the war. Just as they have in wars throughout history, women stepped up to keep the economy running. “During the war a lot of men left their homes and companies, left their wives to run the companies,” she tells bne IntelliNews. On top of that, with men no longer allowed to leave Ukraine, "we have seen a push [for women] to take some more leading roles”. 

Natural advantages 

At Tivoli, the Lisovska sisters stepped up their efforts to promote the company abroad since the war temporarily froze the domestic market. 

Alla and Julia Lisovska. Source: Tivoli. 

Julia Lisovska points to the long tradition of furniture manufacturing in the country, especially of tables and chairs. When Ukraine was in the USSR, it produced of furniture for Soviet Union countries, as well as satellite states including East Germany.

Lisovska says Ukraine has a number of advantages in the furniture sector, not least great quality designers. Previously, the country has been involved in manufacturing of products designed abroad, but Lisovska believes there is potential to work more with local designers. Tivoli has already won two European awards, taking the DNA Paris and European Design Awards for its Calm collection in 2023 and the Muse Design Award in 2024. It worked on the collections with a designer originally from the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. 

Just as important as the tradition of manufacturing is the fact that Ukraine has plentiful supplies of wood; Tivoli uses locally grown beech, oak and ash in its furniture. “We [Ukraine] can’t not produce furniture, we have to produce furniture because nature gave it to us,” says Lisovska. 

After the invasion 

Still, the company, like many others, struggled after the invasion in 2022. Ukraine has lost at least 6mn people since 2022 due to war and emigration, as millions of people fled to other parts of Europe to avoid the fighting. 

The invasion was on Thursday, February 24, 2022. “On the Monday everybody came back to work,” says Lisovska, many of them still in shock and with no idea what to expect. The only exceptions were men who had already signed up to go to the front. As a result, since the invasion, the headcount at Tivoli’s factory in the Stryi district in Ukraine’s Western Lviv region has dropped from 200 people to around 170. 

“At the moment we face a big challenge with workers, we dramatically miss men especially,” says Lisovska. 

However, women have stepped in to replace the men who left for the frontline. “I hope and believe women will take on more activity in manufacturing,” she adds.

A female worker at Tivoli's factory. Source: Tivoli. 

Domestic market disruptions 

Tivoli was also affected by a sudden slump in demand on the local market. Immediately before the invasion, the Ukrainian economy “just froze”, says Lisovska, with nobody buying anything except essentials. It was the same after the invasion, when Ukrainians were in a collective state of shock. 

Since then, the local market has revived somewhat, with Ukrainians continuing to live their lives (and furnish their homes) under wartime conditions. One of the reasons the recent bombing of a DIY mall and garden centre in the city of Kharkiv was so deadly was that it was crowded with shoppers at the time of the attack. 

The invasion also stalled Tivoli’s exports, which Ukraine’s Black Sea ports came under bombardment by Russia, blocking maritime exports of grain and other goods. It was unclear at first whether Ukrainian truckers could continue to work given the restrictions on men between 18 and 60 leaving the country. When that issue was resolved, companies faced issues with international payments. More recently, protests erupted in neighbouring Poland, blocking routes out of Ukraine.

The war forced Tivoli to look for new buyers, as both Ukraine and its markets abroad felt the repercussions of the war. The Russian invasion and imposition of sanctions sparked an energy crisis that caused a slowdown of the European markets where Tivoli was selling. 

To keep the company afloat, Lisovska started to take part actively in furniture fairs in the US and other countries. “I never did so many fairs and furniture shows until this full-scale war,” she says. 

The effort was successful. “We doubled our customers. We were 90% as busy as before the war, I think it’s a really good result.” Simply keeping going was crucial; as Lisovska says, “some companies in Ukraine were not ready for export and they just stopped for a couple of months. It is much more difficult to restart than keep on working.” 

Figures on Tivoli’s turnover tell the same story. Turnover grew by 24% year on year in 2021, but dropped by 25% in the first year of the war. But by 2023, growth had rebounded. 2023 turnover was up by 3% compared to the final pre-war year 2021. 

Tivoli managed to increase exports of its furniture since the Russian invasion. Source: Tivoli. 

Infrastructure under attack  

But the business continues to face new challenges. Power became a problem, when Russia started deliberately targeting Ukrainian power stations and other infrastructure starting from October 2022. That left both households and businesses with sporadic supplies for just a few hours at a time. 

Tivoli was somewhat better prepared than others because before the war, it started to build a power plant for the factory, using wood offcuts as fuel. Rather than simply burning the wood, it uses an eco-friendly process to obtain gas from the wood under high temperatures; the gas is then used to produce electricity.

The attacks continue. Even the small city of Stryi where Tivoli’s factory is located has been targeted by missiles because of its underground gas storage facility. 

Some of the time, according to Lisovska, life goes on as normal in Ukraine. “If you come to Ukraine [you] will see flowers, coffee shops…” she says, with the main difference being the men in army uniforms. 

But, when the sirens go off, everything changes. Now pregnant with her second child, Lisovska talks of the way the war has affected her small son, who at the age of five has become used to being taken down to the bomb shelter – sometimes multiple times a day – by his kindergarten teachers. 

As Russia steps up its assault on the ground in Ukraine, Ukrainians like Lisovska are pinning their hopes on their country’s international partners supplying air defence to enable Ukraine to defend itself. 

Through her work, she aims to both help Tivoli thrive and raise global awareness about Ukraine’s situation. And looking ahead to when the war is finally over, Lisovska believes that Ukrainians will emerge stronger from their experiences. “I love my country, I believe in my country,” she concludes.