«People and machinery are in the heart of our enterprise”, Oleksandr Safonov, the CEO of “Liubaretske” enterprise

“Liubaretske” enterprise located in Boryspil district grows three crops: wheat, corn and soy. Its history started in 2003 from a local post-soviet entity, while now it is a modern enterprise with a powerful machinery fleet – more than 80 units. It is a long-term customer of Credit Agricole: for 14 years now, the bank has been covering all needs of the business during the agrarian cycle: financing purchase of seeds, crop protection agents, fertilizers, and agricultural machinery. The CEO of the company tells that he is

“Since the very beginning, since 2003, we have developed our enterprise using borrowed funds. We have a long history of partnership with Credit Agricole, and we are satisfied with our cooperation with the bank: with the expertise of its employees and reliable relations”, Oleksandr Safonov, the CEO of LLC “Liubaretske”,  tells.  

And recently, the company has tried financial lease for the first time. The customer got a John Deerе tractor and harvester on lease and received 10% cashback of the finance amount thanks to a joint program of the EU and EBRD «Credit Line EU4Business-EBRD» which the bank joined more than 6 months ago.

The customer received fully equipped and ready to use machinery in the autumn, during the harvesting period, hence, could benefit from the machinery in the field and invest the received cashback.  

«People, their expertise, and, of course, the machinery are in the heart of our enterprise. We try to renew our machinery every three years. This ensures uninterrupted agrarian cycle, improves performance and, ultimately, impacts out profit. A cashback on lease service became a nice surprise for us. We have already invested the received funds into our business”, Oleksandr Safonov, CEO of LLC “Liubaretske”, tells.  

Modern machinery fleet is a pride of the company. There are loaders, tractors for soil processing and sowing, sowing machines, grain trailers, harvesters, etc. They prefer tried and tested machinery of global brands: John Deere, Claas, MAN. Managers of the enterprise are convinced that the machinery is more than a mean of production, it is a key to productivity.  

“Agribusiness likes precision: in the sowing and harvesting season we work strictly according to the calendar. Any deviation from the schedule or a downtime cost us a lot: delayed sowing – delayed harvesting – no yield. Everything loses sense. Of course, outdated equipment can collapse in the middle of the agrarian season, and therefore, we renew it on time”, chief mechanical engineer of the LLC “Liubaretske”, tells. 

It is easy to calculate benefits from the new equipment fleet. According to the chief engineer, new machinery accelerates each stage of the agrarian cycle by about 40%: ploughing, harvesting and soil fertilizing:  

“Let’s take an example of a John Deere harvester that we leased from Credit Agricole. During one shift, it harvests from 23-30 hectares of land while the performance of other harvesters is by about 40% less. With such a harvester in our fleet, we no longer need to use other harvesters in the process. Not only the new machinery harvests faster, it does not break down, is easier to maintain and saves fuel”. 

The expert makes the same comparison with the John Deere tractor: previous models ploughed 20 hectares of land in 12 hours while a modern John Deere does 25-30 hectares.

In Ukraine, leasing development is slowed down by the stereotype thinking: they say, it is better to own than to lease. However, in Europe the long-term lease of machinery becomes more and more popular.

The farming enterprise “Liubaretske” is free of stereotypes: “We are happy to lease tractors, sowing machines, irrigation machinery. We are waiting for the operational leasing to be able to use tractors during one season, for example”, Oleksandr Safonov tells.

The enterprise has recently finished harvesting but the works are not over: in the early winter, the soil should be loosened to improve its fertility, and in March, the sowing campaign preparation begins.

Credit Agricole Bank issued more than UAH 330 million of machinery leasing finance as part of the program «Credit Line EU4Business-EBRD» over the first six months of its usage by the bank. Credit Agricole lets the machinery of the following leading manufacturers and their official dealers: John Deere, Claas, Berthoud, «МАN Truck and Bus Ukraine». It also offers the machinery by “Poletechnika” (agro sector) and Winner (cars and commercial vehicles).

 “We designed a simple procedure to get a cashback: when a customer gets machinery on lease and we see that the parameters of the deal comply with the conditions of the agreement with the EBRD, we submit a special form for consideration of a dedicated consultant. As a rule, a positive decision is made since we study all the required information on the customer very carefully. Normally we receive the funds within three months, and we transfer them to the customer. As a result, business feels no additional workload associated with deal formalization”, Yurii Vasylenko, tells.

You can learn more about the program «Credit Line EU4Business-EBRD» here. You can also get a consultancy on participation from your Credit Agricole manager or contact center of the bank by phone: 0 800 30 0004.