This year, MARKQUEN made it to the Forbes Next 250 list — a ranking of the most promising small and medium-sized businesses in Ukraine. Among more than 800 applicants, our team was included in the list of those who are already changing the market, thinking big, and looking confidently into the future.
From Agency to Manufacturing
MARKQUEN is a story about former employees of a large international company who wanted to implement their experience in their own business, reflecting their ideas in the name — MARK from “marketing” and QUEN (KVEN) from a newly created Norwegian dialect, meaning “new perspective.”
Founders Bohdan Zelenyi and Oles Potiahylo started with €5,000, aiming to change the approach to POS solutions and believing that brands deserve more technological and innovative solutions than the market offered at that time.
For the first years, we worked as an agency, outsourcing production. But poor-quality batches and lost clients signaled: control is key. In 2020, we opened our first workshop and focused on our own production.
Investing in Manufacturing and People
To scale production and meet growing demand, Bohdan and Oles attracted external funding: a grant for processing production and a loan at 7% under the state 5-7-9 program for Ukrainian enterprises.
Scaling required quick and risky decisions — “Once, I had to mortgage my house,” recalls Oles.
In total, €1.4 million was invested in production capacities and equipment, with all company profits fully reinvested — without paying dividends. This allowed the launch of our own metalworking shop and the implementation of multi-level quality control through routing sheets.
The shortage of qualified personnel became a challenge, so MARKQUEN focused on internal development.
“We realized there would be no instant results. We need to grow talent from within,” says Bohdan.
“Our most valuable resource is people who feel confident in their work and see that they are appreciated,” adds Oles. Within 6–8 months, newcomers became versatile specialists who now train others themselves.
Failures, Takeoffs, and Focus
In 2021–2023, MARKQUEN invested about €10,000 in digital marketing, but it only brought small orders without systematic cooperation.
“We were spreading ourselves thin, chasing isolated foreign orders,” the founders admit.
Another failure was participating in the Popai exhibition (France), which cost €30,000 but, without local recognition, brought no results. “We blindly believed our solutions would impress, but people simply didn’t know us.” A pleasant exception was winning silver at the Popai Awards 2021 for a display for Optimeal (Kormotech).
These mistakes forced a rethink: the company focused on segments where it has expertise — pet food, alcohol, confectionery — and decided to grow together with clients rather than blindly enter new markets. MARKQUEN bet on building the brand in Ukraine and becoming a thought leader among FMCG. The team began organizing niche events for brands and retailers.
“The ROI from events wasn’t always immediate, but they expanded the client base by 20% and often brought unexpected requests — we were top of mind,” explains Bohdan.
MARKQUEN’s Business Model: Diversification and the Challenge of Scaling
MARKQUEN stands out from competitors who often dump prices and work at a loss just to win tenders.
“We’re not chasing every order; we want to be profitable,” say founders Bohdan Zelenyi and Oles Potiahylo.
Given the seasonality in the POS communications segment, the company focuses on profitability and, in recent years, has diversified revenue: 30–40% comes from outsourcing, including metal products, as well as R&D in retail technologies.
MARKQUEN operates as an agency, outsourcing to trusted contractors when needed. The company structure includes several workshops where profitable areas cover losses in others. But this model slows growth. That’s why the plan is to separate workshops into autonomous business units with their own management and finances.
“This will force each workshop to think independently, find solutions, and cover losses with their own efforts,” explains Bohdan.
Trade Equipment and Retail Technologies
MARKQUEN creates POS materials — shelves, stands, displays, shop-in-shops, and brand zones — that boost recognition and sales in retail, focusing on pet food, alcohol, beverages, and confectionery.
The innovation team also develops retail technologies:
- Robocat with interactive screens
- Proteus — an IoT display for real-time sales monitoring
- Robohand — a shelf display with LED lighting and traffic analytics
- Q-PAD — a terminal for interactive product selection and consumer data collection
What’s Next?
The company plans to open a factory in Romania by the end of 2026 (cardboard or metal production), launch an office in Bulgaria, and expand its presence in Poland with the prospect of local manufacturing. Over the next five years, production workshops in Lviv will be transformed into autonomous business units with separate management and finances. By 2030, MARKQUEN aims to reach €50 million in annual global revenue, ensuring stable growth of 70% each year.
Being included in Forbes Next 250 is not the finish line. It’s a milestone proving we are moving in the right direction. And most importantly — we remember where we started and why we keep building.
