Scaling Beyond Ukraine: Yuliia Opalenyk on the New Logic of International Growth at Brave CFO Gathering 2026

“Global growth does not start with the ambition to enter a new market. It starts with the readiness to become a reliable system for that market. A company must honestly ask itself: can we ensure stability, quality, and predictability not only during growth, but also in crisis scenarios? This is what international partners buy today – not just a product, but confidence that the business can withstand pressure, meet its commitments, and plan joint development for years ahead,” said Yuliia Opalenyk during her speech.

Previously, many companies saw export as the next stage of growth. Since 2022, it has also become a tool for resilience. Working in international markets creates new growth opportunities and helps diversify risk, adapt to different operating models, and meet higher expectations for business predictability.

This logic is familiar to Kormotech. The company has been expanding its international presence for years, and export has become even more important since the start of the full-scale war.

Today, Kormotech operates in more than 50 countries, has distribution centers in Europe, and combines Ukrainian production with an international operations team. This means daily work across different market conditions, regulatory environments, supply chains, and partner ecosystems.

In these conditions, the key factor is not only sales growth. It is the resilience of the entire system: logistics, procurement, financial planning, inventory management, energy independence, currency risks, and scenario-based budgeting.

The role of the CFO is changing, too. Today, CFOs do not work with one baseline plan. They manage several scenarios at once. Their focus goes beyond budgeting and cost control. It also includes assessing the impact of payment delays, rising logistics costs, currency fluctuations, liquidity needs, and cash gap risks.

For Kormotech, this is especially relevant. The company combines production, export, brand presence, and operations across different regulatory environments. In this model, the finance function evaluates not only the profitability of a specific market, but also the full cost of being present there: logistics, inventory, marketing investment, certification, legal support, cash conversion speed, and the country’s strategic value for the business.

This is why international growth is about a company’s ability to remain reliable, predictable, and resilient for partners under any circumstances.