The information about the raider seizure of the largest chain of stores of gadgets and electronics "Citrus" in Ukraine produced the effect of an exploding bomb. For the second month, the attention of the entire market has been focused on the intra-corporate conflict of the digital retail flagship. He writes about it Delo.ua.
In July 2020, the co-owner of the network is Dmitry Zinchenko stated on his Facebook page, that his former partner Hryhory Topal, with whom he built a business for 20 years, not only tried to fraudulently take over the corporate rights belonging to the Zinchenko family, but also to fabricate an absurd criminal case against him.
The consequence of Topal's actions was that Zinchenko actually completely lost the ability to control his business: he was illegally removed from the position of CEO of the company, its employees were forbidden to communicate with him, and the entrance to the office was blocked by new security. In addition, the personal phones and mail of the businessman, who owns 50% of the network, were disconnected.
In turn, Grigory Topal demonstratively remains silent and all this time does not comment on Zinchenko's statement. Delo.ua understood what is happening today with the most famous chain of stores selling gadgets and electronic equipment, how this story can turn out for it and who can extract the maximum benefit from it.
Let's note that the network of stores of gadgets and electronics "Tsitrus" was created 20 years ago by Dmitry Zinchenko and Grigory Topal, each of whom owns 50% of the company.
This is confirmed by the 50/50 distribution of shares in LLC "ZT-Invest", which is not only the owner of all the brands of the network, but also in equal shares of Zinchenko and Topal's most expensive asset of the company, the Citrus brand, which Novoe Vremya magazine estimated at 65 million dollars.
In addition to the company itself, the partners divided their powers among themselves. Zinchenko took over the development of the network and business management, and Topal - security, relations with state bodies, legal block and finance.
In fact, "Citrus" is a branched network of legal entities and private limited companies trading in electronics. An important feature of this network is that Zinchenko has no influence on it — in fact, it is under the sole control of Topal. This follows from the fact that the owners and managers of the specified legal entities are nominal persons-"pounds": lawyers and "security guards" of "Citrus", who were brought into the company and whose activities are managed by Topal.
Figuratively speaking, Topal in "Citrus" is a projection of Lukashenko in Belarus: he appointed the "right" people to all key positions, he ensured interaction with state bodies, cash flow, legal support, and company security.
But the main thing is the orientation of all these people exclusively on Topal. That, in particular, explains why he managed to remove Zinchenko from the company so easily: while he was engaged in the creation and development of the business, Topal concentrated all the power in it in his hands.
As a result, de jure equal partners found themselves in completely different "weight categories" - and in the very first conflict, Topal managed to immediately deliver an unexpected blow to Zinchenko in the back. However, it is impossible to call this victory of Topal unconditional.
Commenting on the situation Delo.ua, Dmytro Zinchenko noted that after Topal took over the Tsitrus company, the network experienced a huge outflow of personnel - both quantitatively and qualitatively. So, in the month that has passed since the company was taken over, the operations director Alexander Chistyakov, the head of online business citrus.ua Vitaliy Pilypenko, the head of the educational project Alexander Voytovych, as well as the head of the corporate university and co-author of the unique project TseKonstitutsiya Frol Kharko have already left it.
"Given the high competition in electronics retail, the main asset of Citrus is a strong team. I not only gathered the best professionals, but also was their ideological inspiration. Taking into account that at the moment the best minds of Citrus are leaving, and I am removed from management, there is simply no chance for the company to remain afloat," Dmitry Zinchenko said in a comment Delo.ua.
