Oleksandr Hereha

Oleksandr Volodymyrovych Hereha was born on 27 June 1967 in Horodok, Khmelnytskyi Oblast, in what was then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. His parents were factory workers. From 1984 to 1985, he served in the Soviet Army, and he subsequently studied at the Khmelnytskyi Cooperative Technical School [uk] from 1987 to 1990 before graduating from the Lviv University of Trade and Economics with a specialisation in organisational and administrative management.^[1]

Hereha began working as a schoolboy, working at the local bread factory and sovkhoz on school holidays. In 1991, he founded a ceramic tiling and plumbing fixture service, before opening a retail store in 1996.^[1]

In 2003, Hereha and his wife Halyna founded Epicentr K LLC, which later became Ukraine's largest chain of construction and household hypermarkets, Epicenter. The first store of the chain was opened in 2005 on Bratislavska Street in Kyiv.  From 2003 to October 2012, he headed the Epicenter K Limited Liability Company.

In 2013, Epicenter K LLC acquired a controlling stake in Nova Liniya construction supermarkets.^[2] In the same year, the Kalynivka logistics complex was acquired. In July 2015, the newly built Kalynivka customs terminal was opened on its basis.^[3]

As of 2021^[update], 60 million people use Epicentr K's online services. Epicentr K has also forayed into agribusiness, owning its own production facilities and absorbing 19 production facilities in 2017.^[4]

In 2020, Epicenter began developing its marketplace. In the same year, it bought a controlling stake (80%) in the Vinnytsia Agro-Industrial Group holding.^[5] The Hereha family has invested over ₴6 billion into agribusiness, with plans to invest an additional ₴2.5 billion in 15 grain elevators with a total capacity of 1.5 million tons of grain storage.^[6]

The acquisition of the new assets brought the total area of land under cultivation of Epicenter Agro's agricultural enterprises to 160 thousand hectares in 5 regions (Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Kyiv, Cherkasy, and Zhytomyr).^[7] The company grows grains and oilseeds: wheat, corn, sunflower, rapeseed, and soybeans. 20 livestock farms are owned by the Herehas. In 2019, they invested ₴3 billion into the development of a ceramic tile factory in Kalynivka, Fastiv Raion, Kyiv Oblast.^[8]

Hereha is one of the richest people in Ukraine, with a net worth of $1.7 billion according to Kyiv Post in 2021. According to the Pandora Papers, Hereha and his wife own five offshore companies in Cyprus.^[9]

In 2019, the Hereg couple invested UAH 3 billion in the construction of a plant for the production of ceramic tiles and porcelain stoneware by Epicentr Ceramic Corporation in Kalynivka, Kyiv region.^[10] The group's woodworking enterprise, the Osmoloda CSM, is also located in Kalush, Ivano-Frankivsk region.^[11]

In 2020, Epicenter K entered into an agreement with the Polish company OTCF to develop a mono-branded 4F store chain in Ukraine.^[12] In the same year, Epicenter began developing the country as a franchise of The Athlete's foot (TAF) sportswear and footwear chain. The brand is a subsidiary of Intersport International Corporation.^[13]

In March 2022, Multiservice dry cleaners were launched in the chain's stores, with the first outlets opening in a shopping center in Ivano-Frankivsk and on Polyarna Street in Kyiv.^[14] In 2023, it became known that the Hereg couple had purchased the Polish Intersport chain for €10 million.^[15]

In 2018, it became known that the Hereha family had continued the operations of Epicentr K in Crimea following the peninsula's 2014 annexation by Russia. It was additionally discovered that they had been operating a company in Russia's Moscow Oblast.^[16] Hereha has claimed that he does not control Epicentr K in Crimea since the Russian annexation.^[9]