Former partner of Galia Baluwana Volodymyr Matviychuk develops his own network | Ukrainian News

The Multicook franchise has 150 outlets across Ukraine. 100 of them have opened former franchisees of the popular Galya Baluvana chain. This is not a coincidence: Multicook founder Volodymyr Matviychuk is a former co-owner of Galya Baluvana.In 2025, he scandalously dispersed with her business partner Alla Teliga, she kept the brand. Now Matviychuk is developing a competitor to his former company. He sells frozen convenience foods under the Multicook and Multibar franchises. He also has a project Gabar – is a chain of gastro bars where you can eat quickly. It is built on the concept of semi-finished food – semi-finished products that are prepared in a separate kitchen and finished in the restaurant.Volodymyr Matviychuk told Tamara Tysyasnya in detail what he learned from the story of Halya Baluvana, how his company differs from its competitor's franchise, and how much to invest in his outlets and what their payback is.Why three different franchisesYou have three store formats: Gabar, Multicook and Multicook with Multibar. Which do you open more?It all depends on the location.We adapt to the premises, because, strangely enough, there are not many offers in Ukraine right now. If the location is small, we open a classic Multicook: a store of frozen semi-finished products.If we have a larger area and a target audience that needs a quick snack, we open Multicook with Multibar. This is a hybrid format – a convenience store and a cafe. Here you can buy pizza, which will be prepared on the spot, coffee, and confectionery. We began to actively develop this format in the summer of 2025.Does it give a higher turnover per point? If the location is chosen correctly and there is a target customer, the outlet justifies itself. Multibar is also a tasting of Multicook products. It gives the store more traffic and familiarity with the assortment.The target audience for this format is people who need somewhere to eat during the day. A regular Multicook store is more suitable for residential areas, where people can buy frozen products to take home after work.Read also"Galya Baluvana vs Multi Cook: How former partners became competitors for the Ukrainian marketIf we compare the three formats, which one is the most expensive in terms of investment and which one can be recouped the fastest? The most costly part of all formats is the production, which we launch for each partner.Speaking of Gabar, it can be different. There is a 30-square-meter option, where the investment in the establishment itself is about $25,000-30,000. There are larger Gabar areas – 100 m², where the investment is about $40,000 and more.To launch Gabar, the partner additionally invests in its own production, which we launch from scratch – it's about $40,000 dollars.For a classic Multicook store, you need about $35,000-50,000, depending on the area and investment in renovation.Multicook pays for itself in six months to a year, while Gabar pays for itself in a year to two.So Multicook and the gastronomy department are a symbiosis of two formats?Yes. Multicook with Multibar is opened mainly by partners who already have several stores. They have mastered the processes and have a wide range of products.If production is already running, to scale up stores, you need $10,000-12,000 for each additional location. If you scale a Multicook store with a Multibar, the investment is about $25,000-$30,000.Nowadays, Multicook and Multibar are mostly opened by partners from my previous network, Gal Baluwan. These are people who have rebranded their outlets. There are partners who have rebranded both 24 and 27 stores in different cities.Read also"Galya Baluvana in one hand. What's next and what other businesses the franchise founders are launchingWhat it's like to be a competitor to a former business But Galia Baluwana's former franchisees didn't just rebrand to Multicook. They joined your network from Alia Teliga's company. Will you continue with this strategy of attracting partners?They make such decisions themselves. The partners from the previous network know me, have worked with me, understand who developed and built the system, so they have a certain trust in me and the Multicook franchise.We understand that the number of partners who will either rebrand or operate in two networks will continue to grow. At the same time, we are attracting new partners and launching businesses from scratch.You developed Galya Baluvana, and now this chain is your competitor. How does it feel to compete with your previous business? There cannot be only one player in any market, there must be a choice. The customer always wants to compare and decide where to buy.Multicook does not compete directly with Galia Baluwana – we have our own target audience and our own client.Looking at the market as a whole, it is still at the development stage: the semi-finished products segment in Ukraine is still being formed. Because of the potential of this product, we understand that Multicook will also win over its target audience.How can the market develop? Firstly, by creating new product categories, because there is still plenty to freeze. Secondly, by developing gastronomic stores, as the trend of eating out will grow over time.It is in the Multicook format with Multibar that we can feed a person both borscht and bograch in a small area.The market is growing overall: consumption of convenience foods is increasing by 15-25% every year. Every year, people are refusing to cook at home on a daily basis. We are also developing ready-made frozen food, such as potatoes with meat and salads. These areas are also growing.Read alsoFrom Galya Baluvana to MultiCook. How a Ukrainian chain broke into Europe and AmericaWhat conclusions did you draw from the story of Halia Baluvana? In a sense, Galia Baluwana tempered me and gave me strong managerial experience. At the same time, I gained a clear understanding of how important it is to draw up documents correctly and legally record agreements at the beginning of cooperation.In my previous business, I had a 50/50 partnership format. Due to excessive trust and improperly executed documents, conflicts began to arise in the course of work, which made it difficult for me to manage and develop the network. This became one of the key factors why I decided to leave the business and not to delay the cooperation process in order not to aggravate the situation for myself or my franchise partners.That is why the main recommendation for everyone now is to draw up clear documents and negotiate correctly at the start. As a company grows, unforeseen circumstances and frequent conflicts always arise.About plans and foreign marketsWhat are you building your difference from Galia Baluvana on now? What is your unique selling proposition? We try to be different with our assortment – we are constantly improving and expanding it. The second strategic difference is the development of the Multicook format with Multibar, i.e. a store with a gastronomic focus. These are the two key differences, and in the long term we will expand in terms of assortment, categories, and directions.You are planning to develop another format: a separate kitchen and separate outlets. Is this something new? This is scaling. A partner opens a shop and scales up stores from there. We are considering more powerful centralized workshops – from 200 m² and more.Those partners who want to enter the market faster and on a larger scale choose centralized production. We have an understanding of how to speed up these processes so that a partner can immediately create a network of five to ten stores.It's difficult to open 10 stores with a kitchen in each one: it takes a lot of time, space, and repairs. It is more logical to open a separate production facility in the industrial zone and multiply the outlets from there. Investments in them are about $10,000-12,000.This is a departure from the original concept of a store with an open kitchen.We follow the market. We understand that sooner or later every small business wants to become big. Therefore, we are moving towards bigger business, and large centralized workshops are the future.What are your plans for 2026? We have realistic plans to open about 100 more stores.Do you open your own outlets? When you run a professional franchise, the speed of opening your own stores decreases, because it's impossible to do everything. There were 13 Galya Baluvan stores that we rebranded to Multicook. In 2025, we opened six more in Volyn, Lviv, Ternopil, and Rivne regions. In Lviv, we want to scale up both with our stores and franchise. We realized that the Lviv market is very large, and we will not be able to cover it quickly with our capacities alone.In how many countries do you have Multicook outlets abroad? Today we have about 280 stores in almost 30 countries. Multicook is most popular in the United States and Canada. In Georgia, too, there is a very high demand for our products. The Baltic countries are also doing well: Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Finland.It is an understandable product for these markets and the local population, plus there is a large share of the Slavic population there. We plan to open in Sweden soon.How Multicook management is organized abroad? Basically, everything is managed from the central office in Ukraine. Our task in each country is to launch production for our partners. We have launch teams that constantly travel around the world and launch production. Other teams launch new partners in Ukraine.Everything is managed from the central office: marketing, design, labels, operational support. There are specialists who help the partner at all stages, actually creating a turnkey business. It is very expensive to set up offices in America or other countries because of the level of salaries.

Life after Galia Baluvana. How its former owner is building his new business – an interview

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