Eva Bykova, owner and manager of the company, tells about the history of her company, its development path and growth points EVA LAB.
PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA: How long have you been in the furniture business? How did your tasks and understanding of your path transform during your work in this field?
Eva Bykova: I have been in the furniture business since 1997. At that time, there was practically no ready-made furniture. Cupboards were considered a masterpiece on the market. We were engaged in the production of exactly this category of furniture together with a partner in our company, in which I was responsible for development. At that time, no one particularly thought about design. Gradually, we began to make cabinet furniture for residential interiors, and then kitchens. I remember how I prepared the projects of 3-4 kitchens, which we immediately produced and showed at a furniture exhibition.
Eva Bykova, owner and manager of the EVA LAB company
Back then, we still didn't know the standards required by the kitchen, and we didn't know how to make them correctly. But kitchens have become an important stage of development for us. We were a very small company and fulfilled orders worth $300–500. At the same time, we went to exhibitions in Italy, watched, studied, and this also contributed to our development as producers. After one of these trips, I designed a stunning kitchen for clients, which they bought for $3800, which was a lot of money at the time. Many years have passed since then. I managed to purchase a factory with a history - "Lagoda". And this, of course, also became a definite breakthrough for me. Today, our company employs people with 20-30 years of experience in furniture production, and with such resources we feel very good about ourselves in the market.
Today, our company implements complex projects and does it at a high level. I don't use the word "luxury" to describe what we do. This is simply a very high technological level of production and management. Each project is worked on by a large team of top-class specialists, including project managers, sales managers, engineers, and installers. My daughter Anna Bykova and I are partners in the company that was founded nine years ago when the Lagoda factory was bought. The team has many people who have been working with us since the day the company was founded. Despite the fact that during the pandemic we had few projects, we managed to keep most of the team and that is very nice.
Grand Hotel Lviv. Production of interior filling of public spaces, including The Lobby Bar and reception, — EVA LAB. Materials: American walnut veneer, glass, metallized copper and brass paint, enamel. In the photo: cigar room
PM: How strong is the tradition of furniture production in Ukraine as a whole?
E. B.: In fact, in addition to Lagoda, in Soviet times in Ukraine there were large, as it is now called, holdings - groups that included different companies: furniture, furniture production. There was the "Hypromebel" institute, which was engaged in design, and "Lagoda" was an experimental site, where every month some new set was released. People still call me who are specifically looking for "Lagoda" and say that they remember the soft corner of "Kashtan" and that they have never seen such quality furniture anywhere else, and they would very much like to buy it.
PM: Can it be said that you drew a lucky ticket, because you had the opportunity to purchase this particular factory at the start?
E. B.: In 2012, at the time of the acquisition of "Lagoda", I already had a lot of experience in this field - I had worked in production for many years, and I knew how to design furniture myself. Many people knew me in the market, and moreover, many people still think that I am an architect. I think that "Lagode" was more lucky than me. Once upon a time, this was a powerful company, a very famous factory that employed 1000 people. When I arrived, the team consisted of 145 people. If I had not bought the factory, it would have simply disappeared, as happened with the furniture factory named after V. N. Bozhenko in Kyiv, which was disbanded in the 2000s and nothing remained of it.
Grand Hotel Lviv
I like traditions, I like to create them myself. And, of course, learning the furniture business independently from scratch, I understood that "Lagoda" is a colossal resource that can be used, but first of all I thought about preserving the famous brand and glorious traditions. It seemed right and honest to me that it is impossible for such a factory as "Lagoda", which existed since 1947, to simply fade into oblivion. I decided that I should preserve at least the name and the people who worked on it. Of course, the equipment — more than 80 units — helped me a lot and came in handy. Now we have two names: the administrative company EVA LAB and a separate legal entity — Lagoda by EVA LAB.
PM: What are the challenges for you in the management of furniture production?
E. B.: To be honest, this is not exactly a woman's job. What is the complexity? It is necessary to master all issues. Let it be shallow, but it is necessary to understand everything, including construction and all production points. We constantly receive complex projects that do not repeat each other, and there is always some nuance that at first is not clear how to implement technologically.
Grand Hotel Lviv
Therefore, of course, I, as the head of the company, must understand constructive, production technology, understand all the processes that take place in the company. Having such a production, it is necessary to have an engineering mindset. This, in my opinion, is a certain difficulty for a female leader in this field.
PM: Your company was originally called Eva Bykova Interior Collection. What was behind the renaming, what are the processes and meanings?
E. B.: Left without a company where I worked with a partner, I found myself in a situation of choice and honestly asked myself what I wanted to do next. I spent 14 years of my life on that business, and it was a turning point for me. In fact, I have many talents, I can do anything and sell anything. But you had to honestly answer the question "What do you want to do?" And I found the answer inside myself: I want to continue making furniture, I like it.
I like to create. Our company employs an architect who used to be the chief architect of the Lagoda factory — Alexander Arkadyevich, he is 74 years old. And I get great pleasure when architects come to me, pick up a pencil, start drawing, and then we hand this sheet to the engineers who make the structure, give the drawings to the factory, and as a result, an object is born from the first pencil sketch.
A fragment of the interior of the presidential suite at the Grand Hotel Lviv
When I understood what my company would do, I thought about its name. By that time, everyone knew me as Eva Bykova and associated me with the furniture company where I used to work. I understood that in order for me to be recognized in a new role, I had to speak up immediately, so that it would take a little time. I can't say that it was psychologically easy to call the company after my name. For me, it was a stage of a certain maturation, rethinking of oneself. I decided and named the company Eva Bykova Interior Collection.
We created a logo, started working, but soon it became clear that the name was too long. We thought for a long time, and an employee of the commercial department proposed to name the company EVA LAB - short, capacious and with potential for growth. In a company with such a name, it can be directed in many different ways, the particle "LAB" - a laboratory - gives a resource for expansion.
PM: In Italy, furniture companies are often family businesses. Is it possible to say the same about EVA LAB?
E. B.: I, of course, originally created my own company as a family business. I saw my family in my relationships with my employees, I understood that I have two daughters who were already working with me at that time, and that I wanted the company to be ours, a family one. Now my understanding has somewhat transformed. Of course, Anya is my partner and we have common development plans, but I no longer perceive the company as before.
"There are moments in life that remain in memory for a long time, and the moment when I approached one of our tables in the Mariinsky Palace and saw a beautiful brass medallion of Lagoda by EVA LAB on a carved support is one of the most powerful and memorable for me"
EVA LAB is still a family company, but I myself have changed a lot inside. I have a different attitude towards employees - not like a family, but like professionals who come to work and with whom we have joint tasks and interests. They help me develop the company, and I help them develop. We are talking about a different business approach, when the development of the company takes place in a different way and internal relationships are built.
It so happened that no one in our family had their own business. We had no one to learn from, we created and create everything ourselves, including traditions. In nine years, my attitude towards the company and business has changed radically. Now I understand that we have grown very much, and now I can call what we do a business. Because the projects we do are of a very high level.
Eva Bykova, owner and head of the company EVA LAB, and Konstantin Kovshevatsky, editor-in-chief of PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA
PM: What evolutionary processes in project work have occurred during the existence of the company? What is your current specialization?
E. B.: Today, we have two directions. The first is contractual. These are large projects - shopping, office centers and hotels. We have implemented hotel projects abroad and in Ukraine. Hotels are an interesting and understandable direction for us. We work with 4-5 star hotels, we do it inspired, deeply, we advise our clients on many things. As a rule, 4-5 star hotels are projects of foreign architectural companies or chain hotels. And there are quite a lot of gaps related to ergonomics and other important points, the solution of which we take upon ourselves and provide our clients with this support.
The second direction is large residential projects, private turnkey orders. When I say "turnkey", I mean complex work on interior solutions. These include ceilings, doors, panels, and integrated furniture. To close the facility from door to door is a complex job at a high level.
The next stage of our company's development will be projects related to ecology. This is what we live now, what we do now. Our company is not indifferent to the environment, to what we leave behind. Before, almost no one was concerned with the issue of ecology in furniture, and we want to change that. In the view of the majority, ecological furniture is something glued together from pine in the Scandinavian style. When it comes to classic and modern interiors, this phrase does not even sound, and we want to give the market a completely new ecological product.
A fragment of the interior of the presidential suite at the Grand Hotel Lviv
PM: What styles do you work with?
E. B.: With any — after all, it is not style that is important, but skill. My experience shows that if the company started with modern furniture and at some stage takes on projects in the classical style, it is a road to nowhere. They do not know how to do this and do not know how. And here is the opposite situation, when the company grew up on classics, and classic furniture is the height of perfection, it is complexity, it is proportions, shapes, then modern furniture does not represent complexity for it.
We fulfill orders both in classics and in any modern styles. Recently, for example, we created a kitchen project in a new style for us under the guidance of the Latvian architect Evgeniy Zakman, who sometimes works in Ukraine. We made drawings, visualizations, the customer accepted our project. From the point of view of technology, there are no difficulties in designing and manufacturing this kitchen for our company.
PM: Who do you most often work with in residential projects — designers or owners?
E. B.: Most often, we work with architectural bureaus that are engaged in interior design. This is due to the level of our projects. Of course, we also contact clients directly and solve some problems, but the main work is done with specialists.
PM: What projects have become iconic for the company, points of growth at a certain stage?
E. B.: If we talk about foreign projects, it is primarily Miami. For me, growth projects are those that give a certain challenge - you've never done it before and you have to deal with it. After completing the project in Miami, we can safely work anywhere in the world. This was an apartment with a view of the ocean with an area of 600 square meters. m, which we made turnkey. With panels made of glass, leather, wood and metal - all the materials that exist on the market today were used there. On this project, we learned how to prepare everything for shipment, pack, ship, deliver, and start work already at the facility.
An example of a large turnkey residential project: a three-story house in the Kyiv region with an area of 710 square meters. m
Among the large and very responsible orders in Ukraine, the project for the residence of the Japanese ambassador in Kyiv was a landmark for us. We were given two months to complete the work. For classic furniture, this is a very short period. We had to improve and speed up the manufacturing process, attract contractors — in the best Italian traditions, when many companies work on the project and each one performs its own operation. For the first month, I did not believe that we would make it. One of the most difficult elements in the project was a decorative frieze in the form of a ribbon — it consisted of 2970 wooden modules with a thickness of only 8 mm and a diameter of 80 mm, which had to be glued together. Our master had to invent a special technique to accomplish this task.
Another challenge for us was participation in the reconstruction of the Mariinsky Palace. As in the case of "Lagoda", when it was very important for me to preserve the factory and its name, so in the project of reconstruction of the Mariinsky Palace, I understood that with this work we are touching something that will live, if not forever, then for a very long time . We had three months for the whole project. But these are 547 pieces of furniture, and most of them are not our profile tables and chests of drawers, but sofas, chairs and armchairs.
But I wanted to participate in this project so much that when I was told that we had won the tender, I was very happy despite all the potential difficulties with its implementation, which were already clear at the start. There are moments in life that remain in memory for a long time, and the moment when I approached one of our tables in the Mariinsky Palace and saw a beautiful brass medallion of Lagoda by EVA LAB on a carved support is one of the most powerful and memorable for me.
The first hotel that we made in the current composition was also a point of growth — Aloft in Kyiv, belonging to the Marriott International network: 320 rooms and three years of work, one and a half of which we were waiting for a client. We had to complete the project systematically and technologically as soon as possible, and we succeeded. The next revolutionary project for us, which we did immediately after Aloft, is the 5-star Grand Hotel Lviv, where we were entrusted with the entire central area with the reception and 24 columns.
Eva Bykova, owner and manager of the EVA LAB company
11 companies participated in the tender, and we won, because no one else could make a broken-shaped column from MDF with walnut veneer. When we made a sample 1 m high, the customer immediately signed a contract with us. As a result, we received a large order, which we brilliantly handled — the interiors of the Grand Hotel Lviv. I have never seen more beautiful receptions in terms of form and style. It was very interesting to participate in this project. In addition, it is a public space, and now we can invite customers there so that they can evaluate our work.
Another challenge is related to the project in Georgia. We and one Italian company were chosen to equip the test rooms of the 5-star Kempinski hotel. The project involved complex furniture with a high level of design and technology. We and the Italians implemented one such number each. When, after checking the furniture for compliance with hotel requirements, the investor talked to the Kempinski expert and asked who was better — the Ukrainian or the Italian company, he and I heard the answer: "They are the same." This became for me the highest assessment that can only be imagined. Unfortunately, the project was never implemented due to the pandemic, but it was important and pleasant for us to win the tender.
In the history of our company, there are many projects that we started for the first time. Almost every one of them is a challenge. For example, now we have completely built up a house with an area of 3 square meters with furniture structures. sq. m. We have never had such a density of buildings before.
Another example is the synagogue in Jurmala. Working on such an object, it was necessary to delve into the topic, to find out what an aron a-kodesh is, a synagogue ark for storing the Torah, and where and how it should be located. We studied the question so thoroughly that when our project was accepted by the chief rabbi of Kyiv, we could answer any question, and it was accepted with almost no changes. Again, we had critically little time for implementation, but we managed: we made it, brought it and installed it - everything turned out just perfectly. To date, we have already implemented two synagogues, and we can confidently say that we are specialists in this field.
A residential project with a complex interior solution from EVA LAB. Materials: solid wood, MDF, veneer
I also had an interesting experience designing a kosher kitchen for a private residence. The topic of dividing the kitchen into two symmetrical parts - for meat and dairy products, with two sinks, etc., is completely new and previously unknown to me. The only thing they allowed us to do was to make one cooking surface, not two. The rabbi said that fire burns everything. Each box was signed. It turned out to be a very beautiful kitchen, I like it from the point of view of facades, shapes, filling, and ergonomics.
Among recent works is the "Chalet" project, a two-story house in Lviv. All furniture, decorative panels-boisers, ceiling lining and doors are made of barn board. What is a barn board? This is a board that has been exposed to the environment for at least 25 years. For the "Chalet" we used the material that remained after the demolition of the house built in 1887, which belonged to one of the owners of the Nikolaev port. We processed, cleaned, cut the boards along the plane, bringing them to a thickness of 12 mm.
The barn board is always uneven in color, but the customer wanted the same tone to be selected for the "Chalet". This is the hardest work. We laid out 700 square meters in our factory. m board, we took pictures for the customer, she called and indicated that she did not like it, we marked these elements with masking tape, changed the location, sent again. And so until full approval.
PM: What allows your company to regularly win tenders for large projects?
E. B.: I don't have a clear answer to this question. The reasons may be different. I once won a tender to equip a Toyota interior. We were approached by an architect, the author of the project, and at first I refused, knowing that in such tenders the selection is based on the cost of materials — the cheapest ones are chosen. But at some point, I succumbed to persuasion and prepared a proposal with the materials that I considered the most appropriate for this project.
I knew that this would be the most expensive offer of all, but I came to the company, told and explained my vision. At that time, the decision was made by the Japanese, and negotiations were conducted with them. A week later, they called me and congratulated me on winning the tender, saying at the same time that I was the only one who managed to deeply feel Toyota's philosophy and make an offer with a correct understanding of what they expected from the project. This experience taught me a lot.
Participation in tenders is not the main way for us, unless, of course, we consider the contractual direction. True, tenders sometimes happen in residential projects, as in the last house with an area of 3000 square meters. m, on which we are currently working. We always dive deeper than required, even at the stage of preparing a commercial proposal. We always give the client such a proposal as it was prescribed by the architectural bureau, and such as we see it. Because, for example, the Kvadrat fabric chosen by the architects for the hotel is, yes, it is unique, but there are many other manufacturing companies and you can always find an amazing alternative.
PM: How would you formulate your competitive advantage on the Ukrainian market?
E. B .: Our competitive advantage is immersion in the project, professionalism, a unique approach to each order and the high level of product that we provide.
Interviewed Kateryna Oshemkova
Photo (portraits): Maxim Drobynenko
