Our next article in the “NIBULON’s Pride” series is dedicated to NIBULON employees who work in various areas yet share one goal – to ensure the preservation and transportation of valuable Ukrainian grain to international markets, taking into account the risks and challenges that the agricultural industry has faced in recent years. These are the director of the Mykolaiv cluster of the Elevators Operations Department, Valentyn Umirov, and the chief dispatcher of the Shipping Company of the Logistics Department, Serhii Aleksieiev.
Valentyn Umirov received an award in the “Leader in Effective Managerial Decisions” category for demonstrating a high level of proficiency in making strategic and operational managerial decisions that can ensure stable development and the implementation of new initiatives.
Valentyn joined NIBULON in early 2024, immediately heading the company’s largest elevator group, which includes Kolosivskyi elevator, AK Vradiivskyi, Novoodeska and Voznesenska branches.
The elevator sector is one of the key elements in NIBULON’s export supply chain. It ensures stable storage and the preparation of large batches of grain for sale on international markets.
“The first challenge I faced when I joined the company was managing four elevators simultaneously, which are essentially different enterprises. At the same time, each of them must work efficiently and make a profit. Additionally, it was a challenging season: drought resulted in low yields and underutilization of elevators. Given the peculiarities of the season, it was necessary to plan the operation of the elevators in such a way as to optimize business processes, reduce costs, and increase the efficiency of operations. And, of course, we couldn’t lose the sight of the need to improve service quality and offer farmers the most favorable terms of cooperation,” says Valentyn.
According to him, each new challenge is not a cause for concern but rather a source of motivation and energy: “I was eager to try myself in a new role as a manager of enterprises and to make every effort to achieve the goals set for me.”
“I was eager to try myself in a new role as a manager of enterprises and to make every effort to achieve the goals set for me.”
In 2024, Serhii Aleksieiev showed extraordinary efficiency in managing the fleet in wartime conditions, for which he received the “Steel Dispatcher” award.
Serhii joined NIBULON in 2013, starting in the foreign economic relations and marketing department (declaration and forwarding). In 2019, fate once again connected his life with the fleet, as Serhii says. His father is a captain, so our colleague has been near the sea since childhood, and water is his element.
“Oleksiy Opanasovych approached me and said: “I will make you an offer that doesn’t come every day and that you can’t refuse.” Of course, I could not refuse! Since then, I have been managing the company’s fleet. I’m responsible for its coordination, rational use, optimization of all routes, resources, costs, and prompt resolution of all problematic issues. There have been a lot of such issues since 2022.
At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, when river navigation and the port in Mykolaiv were blocked, we focused all our efforts on the Danube. A new river, new routes, new challenges. There was a lot to learn.
As soon as we were informed about the plans to build Bessarabska branch, I immediately moved to Izmail and began to set up work and communicate with local authorities. We began to relocate dredging equipment, tugboats, and barges.
One of our most difficult and important projects was transporting the NIBULON-14 tugboat. In a disassembled state, we transported it by road on a trailer to Reni and then launched it into the water. No one had performed such operations before. The situation was also complicated by heavy traffic on the roads and kilometer-long queues. But we made it happen. The tugboat moved from the port of Mykolaiv to the port of Reni but in an unusual way. Later, we used the same approach to transport the next tugboat, NIBULON-12. These port tugboats operate on the Danube, assisting vessel mooring and providing services to third-party organizations.
Our main task was to establish and stabilize transportation along the Danube. We coped with it. In parallel, we established transportation on the Dnipro and the Southern Buh. Of course, it is impossible to compare it with the pre-war period, when we had a fleet of about 80 vessels. Today, we work using 9 tugboats and 11 barges,” says Serhii.
Serhii believes that nothing is impossible. Any task, no matter how difficult it is, can be completed. All you need is time and faith in yourself:
“In more than 50% of cases, we were told, “It’s impossible to do.” A week or two would pass, and the project would be implemented. I take my work very seriously. There are no tasks that can’t be accomplished. You have to try, and everything will work out! That’s the only way to gain valuable experience.”
May the dedication and enthusiasm of our colleagues inspire each of us to constant movement and development!
Read the previous article about the achievements of our colleagues in the agricultural sector at the link.
