Missile strikes on warehouses are threatening Ukraine’s consumer brands

Cili Nochi co-founder Anastasia Bobrovska said the brand’s High Summer collection had been prepared for shipment to a New York warehouse. Items were in transit and being held at the facility, owned by shipping company Nova Poshta, when the attack occurred.

“At first, we were trying to understand whether any part of the shipment might have survived, but we were eventually told that the collection had burned and that nothing could be recovered,” she said in a WhatsApp exchange with Modern Retail.

Cili Nochi’s loss is just one example of how Russian attacks on Ukraine’s postal and logistics facilities are disrupting the country’s supply chain operations and the many businesses that rely on it. A social media post from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the wake of an August 5 strike confirmed that at least 17 people died. He also said that the spate of attacks has hit places like a brewing company and civilian logistics buildings. “The main purpose of the attack was the warehouse premises of civil enterprises; there were also strikes on the infrastructure, the railway station,” he said.

Nova Poshta, a privately held shipping company, said on Facebook that the August 5 attack killed three people, injured eight more and destroyed its facility. “Nova Poshta will compensate customers for the full declared value of damaged shipments and will contact each person to inform them of the details of compensation,” the post said.

Cili Nochi is still calculating the full financial impact from the July attack, including the materials, labor, packaging, logistics and overall retail value the inventory was expected to generate.

“Losing it at the moment it was ready to be sold meant losing not only the physical inventory but also the season and the commercial opportunity attached to it,” she said. The company specializes in “second-skin”-style evening wear, with soft fabrics and draping designed for comfort, and the new High Summer collection was specifically intended to support U.S. customer growth, Bobrovska said.

“Thankfully, no members of our own team were physically injured,” she said. “We are still deeply conscious, however, that attacks on logistics facilities and civilian infrastructure place warehouse employees, drivers, customs workers and surrounding communities in danger. These are ordinary workplaces filled with people simply trying to do their jobs.”

Bobrovska said the war has impacted almost every part of the Ukrainian apparel brand’s operations. Beyond the impact of missiles and drones, the war has caused issues like electricity outages, interrupted production schedules, delayed deliveries, damaged infrastructure and employees working from shelters. There are ongoing air raid alarms interrupting everyday activities, and “a constant need to rebuild plans around circumstances outside of our control,” she said.

But Bobrovska also said the Cili Nochi team doesn’t want the attack to stop their brand in its tracks, and they’ve adopted a mindset of resilience. “The collection was destroyed, but the ideas, the skills of the people who made it and the reason we created the brand were not,” she said.

She and Olena Polyvian, the brand’s head of design, are looking at what pieces from the High Summer collection may be able to be reproduced as the season comes to an end, as well as which existing customer orders it may be able to fulfill.

From an operations perspective, she said the brand may consider ways to diversify shipments or split up inventory in the future. But there’s only so much that can be done to limit risk during wartime, she said. “Any civilian facility can still become vulnerable during a Russian attack,” she said.

They’re also already thinking about designing and developing future collections. To help drive sales and immediate cash flow, the brand has been promoting a 20% offer using the code RESILIENCE. Bobrovska said Cili Nochi wants to focus on its future operations not only for the sake of the company, but also because of the health of the overall Ukrainian business landscape.

Paying salaries, paying taxes and driving sales keeps economic life moving during a turbulent time, she said.

“Continuing to create and work is one of the ways people resist the attempt to make normal life impossible,” Bobrovska said.

The week in tariffs

• More than $100 billion has been paid out in tariff refunds to U.S. importers in the ongoing tariff refund process, according to new court documents filed last week. ABC News reports that’s more than half of the $166 billion owed back to U.S. businesses after the U.S. Supreme Court found a suite of tariffs unconstitutional.
• Though some companies like Walmart and Costco have shared that they intend to use the refunds to help offset higher costs customers had to pay when the tariffs were in effect, consumers are unlikely to feel any immediate impact — especially since new tariffs have since been implemented. The Tax Foundation says that new tariffs altogether amounted to an average tax increase of $1,000 per U.S. household last year, and may come in at around $900 for 2026.
• Speaking of new tariffs, the White House has announced a new tariff on polysilicon that’s scheduled to kick in on Dec. 4. The material is used for microchips and semiconductors and plays an important role in AI processing power. It’s also used in solar panels. The administration said the goal of the tariff is to boost U.S. production. The Guardian reports that the U.S. has two main polysilicon factories: Hemlock Semiconductor in Michigan, which is a joint venture between Corning and Japan’s Shin-Etsu Handotai, as well as a factory in Tennessee from the Munich-based company Wacker Chemie.

What we’ve covered

Hims & Hers says its first-ever gummy prescription is driving a high adherence rate

This one is for my fellow product design geeks: Last week, I spoke with Dan Kenger, the chief design officer of Hims & Hers, about the behind-the-scenes of launching the company’s first-ever prescription-grade gummy. The green apple-flavored gummy is meant for hair growth and leans into the trends of premium CPG wellness, like luxe packaging and appetizing flavor and fragrance.

One year in, the results are promising: Hims & Hers surveyed 300 customers and found that 88% said they take the gummy every day, an adherence rate that indicates people took to the form. But getting such results required many new efforts from the design team. Kenger said the company had to invest in new equipment to make the gummy, as well as come up with brand-new packaging to ensure the glass jars could stand up to shipping.

“A big core of what we do is taking what’s happening in other industries and bringing it to pharma,” he said. “I think that’s one of our superpowers; we deal with familiar form factors from non-pharmaceutical spaces, and bring them here.”

Circle K gets serious about retail media

While retail media may have had its origins in online marketplaces, there’s a growing presence of retailer-run networks IRL. Last week, MR’s Mitchell Parton caught up with Circle K about its plans to expand Full Circle Media, a way for advertisers to reach consumers via convenience stores, fuel pumps and digital channels in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

The company’s growth plans hinge on reaching customers beyond the in-store experience. Joell Robinson, Circle K’s director of retail media, said one challenge is that Circle K doesn’t have an e-commerce presence, which limits opportunities like sponsored search and online placements. Instead, it’s leaning into social and off-site placements, as well as tapping into fuel pumps.

“We have so much traffic at the pump, and I think even if we could get a small percentage of that, it would be material,” she said. “That gives them just the opportunity to engage with us and engage with our customer service folks, which I think is where we win them.”

What we’re reading

• Walmart sets new SBTi-Approved emissions reductions target -ESGToday
• UPS rolls out pickup upgrades for small business shippers -Supply Chain Dive
• U.S. trade deficit dips in June along with ‘World Cup Effect’ -The New York Times