Food & Agriculturedigital transformationB2B marketplace
How a Lviv Pallet Maker Found Buyers in Portugal Without Leaving the Workshop
By Sofiia6 min read
S
Was this useful?
Sector analysis, trade policy updates, and export data — delivered free every week.
No ads. No paywall. Made-in-Ukraine NGO.
In a converted barn outside the village of Ruda in western Ukraine, Taras Kovalenko stares at his phone screen, reading a message from a procurement manager in Lisbon. The Portuguese buyer needs 4,000 EPAL-certified pallets monthly for a ceramics distribution centre. Two years ago, Kovalenko wouldn't have known this buyer existed. Today, this single contract represents nearly a third of his company's output — and it arrived not through a trade fair or a cold call, but through a B2B platform inquiry submitted at 2 a.m. Portuguese time.
Company: ТзОВ Бойки Паллетс / Boyky Pallets LLC Founded: 2018 Location: Ruda village, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine Key Products: EPAL-certified euro pallets, custom industrial pallets, heat-treated export packaging Certifications: EPAL, ISPM-15, FSC Chain of Custody Export Markets: Portugal, Germany, Poland, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Romania, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, Belgium, France Digital Platforms: Faktorist.com, Europages, Made in Ukraine Trade Directory
Before 2021, Boyky Pallets sold exclusively within a 200-kilometre radius. Kovalenko, who founded the company after two decades in timber processing, knew the European market was vast. He also knew that reaching it through conventional channels was expensive, slow, and often fruitless.
"I attended a packaging trade fair in Warsaw in 2019," Kovalenko recalls. "Three days away from the workshop, hotel costs, stand rental, printed catalogues. We collected 47 business cards. Follow-up emails got three responses. One became a small order. The maths didn't work."
The traditional path for Ukrainian wood product exporters typically involved hiring an export manager, attending two or three European trade fairs annually, purchasing mailing lists, and hoping that cold outreach would eventually yield results. For a company producing 15,000 pallets monthly — a mid-sized operation by European standards — dedicating resources to this approach meant either raising prices or accepting razor-thin margins.
"We made good pallets. We had the certifications. But nobody in Rotterdam or Munich knew we existed."
The challenge wasn't capability. Boyky Pallets had invested in EPAL licensing in 2019, completed ISPM-15 heat treatment certification, and even secured FSC Chain of Custody documentation for buyers requiring sustainably sourced timber. The challenge was visibility.
The turning point came in March 2022 — an unlikely moment for a Ukrainian manufacturer to find new business. With traditional logistics routes disrupted and many European buyers uncertain about Ukrainian supply chains, Kovalenko made a counterintuitive decision: he doubled down on digital presence.
"Everyone was asking if we could still deliver," he explains. "Instead of answering the same questions hundreds of times, I thought — let's make the answers findable."
Founded: 2018 | Monthly Capacity: 18,000 pallets | Export Markets: 12 countries | Digital Inquiries (2023): 340+ | Conversion Rate: 23%
The first step was registering on Faktorist.com, the AI-powered B2B marketplace connecting Ukrainian suppliers with global buyers. Unlike generic directories, Faktorist's verification process required uploading actual certification documents, production photos, and export history. For Kovalenko, this was an advantage — his EPAL licence, heat treatment certificates, and FSC documentation were already digitised.
"Within the first week, the platform's AI matched us with a procurement request from a German furniture logistics company," Kovalenko says. "They needed 2,000 pallets monthly with specific deck board spacing. We could do that. I responded with specifications and pricing within four hours."
That German inquiry became Boyky Pallets' first purely digital export contract — no flights, no trade fair booth, no intermediary agents.
What began as an experiment evolved into a systematic approach. Kovalenko hired his nephew, a recent IT graduate from Lviv Polytechnic, to manage the company's digital presence. Together, they developed what they call their "visibility stack" — a combination of platforms, content, and response protocols.
Rather than spreading thin across dozens of directories, Boyky Pallets focused on three primary platforms: Faktorist.com for verified B2B matching, Europages for European industrial buyers, and the Made in Ukraine trade directory for export-focused visibility. Each platform served a different buyer journey stage.
"Faktorist sends us buyers who are ready to order," Kovalenko explains. "They've already decided they want Ukrainian pallets. Europages brings researchers — procurement teams doing market surveys. Made in Ukraine brings the curious — people reading about Ukrainian wood products who might become buyers later."
The company implemented a strict two-hour response window for digital inquiries received during European business hours. A simple notification system — Telegram alerts linked to platform dashboards — ensures that even when Kovalenko is on the production floor, he sees new inquiries immediately.
"Portuguese buyers are six hours behind us," he notes. "If they send an inquiry at their 10 a.m., it's our 4 p.m. We can respond before their lunch break. German buyers submitting requests at their 8 a.m. get responses before they finish their morning coffee. Speed matters."
This approach paid dividends. The company's inquiry-to-quote conversion rate — the percentage of initial contacts that proceed to formal pricing discussions — reached 67%. Quote-to-order conversion sits at 34%, well above the industry average of 15–20% for unsolicited trade inquiries.
The digital team created standardised specification sheets for each pallet type, complete with dimensional drawings, load capacity charts, and wood species information. These documents, hosted on cloud storage with shareable links, accompany every inquiry response.
"A buyer in Belgium asked about fungal resistance treatments. Instead of writing a long email, I sent our heat treatment protocol document and the ISPM-15 certificate. She placed an order the next day."
For the Made in Ukraine Magazine audience and similar trade publications, Boyky Pallets provided detailed production process documentation — material that serves double duty as marketing content and buyer education.
By December 2023, digital channels accounted for 71% of Boyky Pallets' new customer acquisition. The company now exports to buyers in 12 European countries, up from three in 2020.
More revealing than the geographic expansion is the customer composition. Traditional sales channels had produced buyers clustered in Poland and western Ukraine — markets reachable by truck within a day. Digital channels brought buyers from Portugal, the Netherlands, and Italy — markets that would have required significant trade fair investment to reach through conventional means.
Kovalenko keeps meticulous records. His 2019 trade fair expenditure — Warsaw show plus follow-up activities — totalled approximately €8,400 and yielded one customer worth €23,000 in first-year orders. Customer acquisition cost: €8,400.
His 2023 digital marketing expenditure — platform subscriptions, premium directory listings, specification sheet design, and his nephew's part-time salary — totalled approximately €4,200. This generated 14 new customers with combined first-year orders exceeding €380,000. Customer acquisition cost: €300 per customer.
"The maths changed completely," Kovalenko says. "And I didn't have to leave the workshop."
Boyky Pallets' experience offers lessons for procurement professionals seeking to source from Ukrainian manufacturers through digital channels. Understanding how to evaluate and engage with digitally-present suppliers can streamline the sourcing process:
Verify certifications independently — reputable platforms like Faktorist require document uploads, but buyers should still cross-reference EPAL licence numbers through the European Pallet Association's online registry.
Request video facility tours — Boyky Pallets now offers WhatsApp video calls showing the production floor, something they introduced after several buyers requested reassurance about operational continuity.
Start with sample orders — digital inquiries can proceed to trial shipments quickly; use these to validate quality before committing to volume contracts.
Clarify logistics terms precisely — digital communication can miss nuances; specify Incoterms, preferred border crossings, and documentation requirements in writing early.
Use platform messaging initially — platforms like Faktorist maintain inquiry records, which provides both parties with documentation if disputes arise later.
Back in Ruda village, the production floor looks much as it did in 2018 — saws, presses, nail guns, stacks of pine boards. But in the small office adjacent to the workshop, a screen shows real-time inquiries from across Europe. A Dutch logistics firm needs pricing for 6,000 pallets. A Czech brewery distribution centre wants samples of heavy-duty variants. An Italian furniture manufacturer asks about FSC-certified options.
Kovalenko's nephew handles the initial responses, pulling from the library of specification sheets and certificates. Complex technical questions route to Kovalenko himself. Orders move to the production scheduler. Shipping coordinates with their logistics partner for the Rzeszów corridor route into the EU.
"My grandfather sold timber to the collective farm," Kovalenko reflects. "My father sold to local factories. I sell to companies in countries I've never visited, through platforms I access from my phone. The pallets are the same quality. The reach is completely different."
For Ukrainian manufacturers weighing digital investment, Boyky Pallets' trajectory suggests that the barrier to European markets has shifted. It's no longer about trade fair budgets or agent networks. It's about being visible, verified, and responsive when buyers search.
The next inquiry could come from anywhere. At Boyky Pallets, they'll see it within minutes.
