Focus on regions. Ivano-Frankivsk

Ivano-Frankivsk is one of the largest cities in the Western Ukraine named after renowned Ukrainian writer Ivan Franko. It is populated with 245 thousand people who simply call it Frankivsk or Franyk. It is packed with stores offering high-quality baby and children’s products (a great weight of them imported from Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia bordering with Ukraine).

We have also been surprised at a great many stores offering prams and strollers. We’d like to believe it points to the fact that Frankivsk residents are more successful in addressing the population problem than those of other Ukraine’s regions. But on the downside, quite a number of children’s stores are located on second and third floors of shopping malls.

We have done a great deal of work during our trip, i.e. have contacted BABY EXPO potential visitors and exhibitors, told them about participation at usual and reduced rates, and extended our professional horizons.

In every visited city, we commonly have a cherry on top. But there we’ve had even two.

The first one is from Masyanya, BABY EXPO exhibitor for the past 10 years, the largest toy trading company in the Western Ukraine. Genius is simplicity! We’ve had a chance to see it for ourselves once again during our visit to Masyanya wholesale store where products by over 25 Ukrainian toy manufacturers are displayed. Any of them can be picked at, fiddled with, tested out by buyers and shipped to their retail stores the very next day.

The second one is from Andre Tan, a well-known fashion designer whose children’s store will be opened soon in downtown Frankivsk. Inspired by this fact, we went back to Kiev by train.