Yesterday, on April 30, Ukrposhta announced the sale of “junk cars,” i.e. an auction of old cars that have been accumulating on the organization’s balance sheet for years and after the change in laws made it possible to sell them. The auction was announced on X (Twitter) with a catchy post that caused a wave of both hate and support. But in the end, it had a positive impact on car sales.
Ihor Smelyansky, CEO of Ukrposhta, said on Telegram that the company was preparing to sell off its vintage fleet even before the full-scale invasion. The procedure was delayed, but on April 30, the company put up 531 cars, mostly from the 1990s and 2000s, on Prozorro.Sale.
“(The vehicles) will either be added to the fleet of a collector or (as I hope) will be used by volunteers, and after repair and reassembly of 3-4 vehicles into 1 on the move, they will help the Ukrainian Armed Forces where it is needed,” said Smelyansky.
According to him, these cars are both foreign-made (Hyundai Sonata, Peugeot, Mazda, Citroen, Volkswagen, KIA, Daewoo, Skoda, Volvo, Mercedes Benz) and made by aggressor countries (MAZ, GAZ, UAZ, ZIL, and others).
All of them were sold in lots ranging from 9 to 134 units according to the regional criterion (i.e., lots are available all over the country) and costing from UAH 42,000 to UAH 1.1 million per lot.
About the post
A post by Ukrposhta on Twitter, announcing an auction for the sale of “junk cars,” received some attention and even a significant amount of hate.
“Yes, they put rotten shit up for auction.
No, they didn’t.
Yes, we would like to give it away for free to those who need it, but we are not allowed to. We sell old cars on Prozorro because it is required by law,” the post reads.
In the comments, readers were outraged by the foul language and the fact that a “state-owned company” was switching to the “language of cattle.” Even Kyivstar could not resist commenting.
However, there are those who emphasized the creativity and humorously supported the daring post, including Ukrnafta and FC Karpaty Lviv.
Ihor Smelyansky responded to the criticism in a separate post, thanking the SMM team for their creativity and endurance and emphasizing that Ukrposhta decided to move forward in the same way as yesterday: “We explain clearly our position and movement, but we do not apologize, do not try to please everyone and do not bring criminal cases to ourselves.”
When asked about the state-owned company, the CEO replied that Ukrposhta is a joint-stock company that exists on the revenues it earns and transfers profits (taxes and dividends) to the budget. “Ukrposhta does not receive anything from the budget. The state has contributed certain assets to our capital, and we are responsible for the efficiency of their use,” he emphasized, adding that all the money Ukrposhta earns, in fact, also goes to the budget (through investments, taxes and dividends), as the state owns 100% of the company’s shares.
An unexpected effect
On April 30, Ukrposhta held 7 auctions, according to Ihor Smelyansky, for the amount of UAH 3,281,070, with a starting price of UAH 2,049,027, which means that the price increase at the auction was +60%.
According to Ukrposhta’s CEO, the auction was “an effective use of state property” and the company will invest the funds in development and preparation for winter, buying firewood, stoves, and mobile gas stations to ensure operations in areas with difficult conditions.
He also added that 3 more auctions worth more than 400,000 will take place on May 1. The company will soon put up another 500 cars. And now Ukrposhta has 6 more auctions with 1 participant (Zakarpattia, Lviv, Ternopil, Mykolaiv, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk), where the auction period has been extended by 7 days. Another 3 auctions (Dnipro, Kharkiv, Odesa) will be announced again on Thursday morning for obvious reasons. Participants will have 14 days to submit their applications.
In addition, Igor Smelyansky announced auctions for the sale of old computers, which are planned for the near future.
