Ukrainian Match Factory () is a Ukrainian manufacturer of matches and the country's top-selling match brand.
History Before 1921 Matches were first produced in Ukraine in the middle of the 19th century. Many private manufacturers of matches were located throughout many regions of Ukraine, including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Poltava, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kherson, Crimea, and Volyn Oblasts.Малеев А.А. (2008). Каталог спичечных фабрик и спичечных этикетов Российской империи 1837-1918 (in Russian) = Catalog of match factories and match labels of the Russian Empire 1837-1918. Volumes 1-17. URI: https://www.matchlabel.com/index/0-192
Most of the private factories ceased to exist after World War I, the Communist revolution in Russia, and the Ukrainian War of Independence.
East Ukraine Sometime in the 1830s or 1840s, the first phosphorus match manufacturing in Kharkiv was begun by Karl Viklas, a watchmaker originally from Lemberg (now Lviv).Жизнь и деятельность немцев в Харькове (in Russian) = Life and operations of Germans in Kharkiv. / Д. Цыпина, З. Эрдманн, В. Ярошик, С. Чистякова, И. Саратов. — Киев, 2004. URL: https://mista.ua/История/Исторические_события/Торговля_и_промышленность._Жизнь/25/?setcity=125Харківщинознавство: навчальний посібник для учнів 8-9 класів загальноосвітніх навчальних закладів / О.І. Грінченко, С.Л Губіна, Т.В. Дрожжина та інші ; за редакцією Л.Д. Покроєвої, Т.В. Дрожжиної ; Харківська академія неперервної освіти. — Видання 3-є, перероблене і доповнене. — Харків: Гімназія, 2011. — С.173. More advanced match manufacturing was done by pharmacist Fedor Ruprekht.Рейнгардт, Феликс Осипович. Харьков 20-х и 30-х годов (По воспоминаниям Ф.О. Рейнгардта) (in Russian) = Kharkiv in 20s and 30s (According to F.O.Reinghardt's memories) // Харьковский сборник : Литературно-научное приложение к "Харьковскому Календарю" на 1887 г. Выпуск 1. – Харьков, 1887. – С. 1–28. URI: https://escriptorium.karazin.ua/handle/1237075002/8871 From 1890 to 1894, there was also a match factory run by Boris Kroianovskyi with 25 workers. A match factory with 30 workers is also recorded as having been active in Romny in 1890.
South Ukraine According to archival documents, the first mention of a private manufacturer of matches is in Odesa in 1861; it was closed after a few years of work. In 1870, the Rublev family launched their own match factory in Odesa for producing Swedish and English matches. Between 1870 and 1920, there were a number of other manufacturers, but active production of matches ceased in Odesa after 1920.
Central and North Ukraine A 20-worker match manufacture was set up by A. Liberman in Kyiv in 1867. Over the next several decades, dozens of match manufacturers sprouted up in Kyiv and its suburbs.
Other production sites could be found at a number of sites, including Korostyshiv, Berdychiv, Radomyshl, Lysa Gora, Cherkasy, Kamianka, Poltava, and Kremenchuk.Діптан, І. І. (2011). Полтава в період непу (1921–1928 роки): проблеми та шляхи їх реалізації. URI: http://dspace.pnpu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/1598 Lurye's match factory, located in Cherkasy, was of particular importance.
In 1914, the "Malorossia" match factory in Novozybkov (Chernigov Governorate at the time) released the first-ever matchbox with a portrait of Taras Shevchenko.
West Ukraine In the late 1890s, there were three manufacturers in the western part of Ukraine: in Pulyny, Zhytomyr Oblast; Tunyky, Ternopil Oblast; and in Kostopil, Rivne Oblast. Aaron Margulis built his match factory in Kostopil. Margulis' factory produced some 635,000 safety matches in 1896 and is recorded as having employed 50 workers in 1897. In 1899, a match factory in Kostopil stopped production due to unknown reasons; also that year, the factory in Kremenets is recorded as having 25 workers employed.
In 1906 in Bila (a suburb of Rivne), a new factory was founded by Aaron Margulis and Itzka Zup, named the "Steam-powered Swedish Match Factory Volyn". In 1909, it had 70 workers and was producing matches at a rate of one million per year. In 1910, production doubled, and by 1911, the factory was employing 80 workers. In 1913, the factory was renamed the "Trading House of the Descendants of Margulis and Zup". Since the beginning of WWI, production started to decrease, and by 1922, the factory had ceased to exist. A few photos made at the production site in 1912–1917 by Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport preserve the memory of this de facto first match factory of Rivne.
1921-1991 From 1917 to 1926, the Soviets operated a state-owned factory called "Ukraine" in Kyiv. In 1922, a match factory was launched in Vinnytsia Oblast.Вінницька область // Історія міст і сіл Української РСР : енциклопедія. — Київ: Інститут історії Академії Наук УРСР, 1972. — С.43. During the occupation and integration of Ukrainian territory into the USSR in the 1920s and 1930s, most private manufacturers were nationalized or destroyed.
After the invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II, many of the production plants were destroyed or evacuated to deep Russian territory. In the post-WWII period there was some amount of match manufacturing in Odessa, according to collected matchboxes of that time, but there were no major match factories in Ukraine till the dissolution of the USSR, as most of the production of matches was centralized around Russian and Belarusian match factories.
Since 1991 As of 1991, Ukraine imported most of its matches from Belarus and Russia, as well as some matches from the Baltic states and Poland.
In Ukraine, the Impuls chemical factory in Shostka produced only storm matches for outdoor activity during the Soviet era and continued production after 1991. However, these matches were expensive, and Ukrainian citizens continued to use safety matches imported from Russia, Belarus or elsewhere.
On 9 January 1991, the private company Gradient was founded as a match manufacturing company by a few enthusiastic ex-employees of the Yuzhnoe Design Bureau, but due to a lack of equipment it was decided to use bags of unsorted matches available cheaply from large match factories in Russia and Belarus, and repack them as large household matchboxes.
In early 1990s, Ukraine spent 20 million USD per year on importing matches. As a solution, the Ukrainian government planned to establish 3 match factories: in Rivne, Kyiv and Dnipro. In Dnipro it was planned to use Gradient as a base of one of such factories, but it was later decided to build only one factory, in Berezne, Rivne Oblast, on the base of an abandoned kinescope plant.
In 1997, Gradient converted itself into the Gradient-Plus LLC match factory in Dnipro. As it was able to accumulate some money selling repacks, the company's owners bought needed equipment, and started production of various matches themselves, mostly via manual assembly.
In 1998, the Ukrainian government established the state enterprise Rivne Match Factory (), as the first domestic match manufacturer in Ukraine, mainly to reduce external interstate payments. Equipment was bought from Swedish Match's Arenco for the price of 17 million Deutschemarks.Заощаджуємо на сірниках. Газета «День». On 12 May 1999, the factory officially opened. Resources needed for manufacturing were supplied by other Ukrainian factories from different regions.
First Ukrainian Match On 14 May 1999, the first fully domestically produced Ukrainian match was produced. These first matchboxes had a title in Ukrainian on backside — "the Ukrainian Match" (later changed to "Ukrainian Matches", "Safety Matches" and finally to simply "Matches").
After 2000, since mass production of basic matches had been started by the Rivne Match Factory, Gradient switched to producing limited-run series of souvenir and custom matches with ads on demand.Короня «Дня» митцівні «Модуль» — за успішне протистояння епідемії. old.day.kyiv.ua (in Ukrainian).Морозова М. М. Структурні складові системи управління безпечністю «НАССР – бройлерне виробництво» / М. М. Морозова // Підприємництво, торгівля: теоретичні підходи та практичні аспекти : матеріали І Міжнар. наук.-практич. інтернет-конф. (м. Старобільськ, 27–28 листопада 2018 року). – Полтава : ПУЕТ, 2018. – С. 161-165. https://dspace.luguniv.edu.ua/xmlui/handle/123456789/4888
In 2004, the Ukrainian Match Factory LLC in Berezne was registered as a private company. According to the Ukrainian Match Factory official site, originally it was founded in 1995.
In 2007, both match factories in Berezne signed a mutual agreement of cooperation, with the Rivne Match Factory as a supplier of chemical parts for the Ukrainian Match Factory's needs.
During 2006–2013, Rivne Match Factory and Ukrainian Match Factory mutually filed several anti-dumping investigations against Russia's and Belarus' match manufactures. In 2012, the Ukrainian government decided to lift anti-dumping tariffs for all imported matches. In 2013, the Rivne Match Factory was proclaimed bankrupt by civil court, with all its equipment as state property, which since then has been leased for the Ukrainian Match Factory.
Russo-Ukrainian War
After Russia's 2014 invasion of Ukraine, sanctions were introduced against some products imported from Russia, but matches was not one such product. Since 2019, matches imported from Russia to Ukraine have been sanctioned.
On 29 May 2020, anti-dumping measures were introduced to protect the Ukrainian Match Factory's rights: a 21.32% tariff on all matches imported from Belarus and a 45.79% (initially proposed as 66.59%) tariff on matches imported from Russia, over a period of 5 years. A few months previously, , one of the oldest match factories in Belarus and top match exporter to Ukraine, discontinued its match production line. Also in 2020, the Gradient-Plus factory, which survived only on the custom souvenir matches market, ceased its production.
In 2020, the Ukrainian Match Factory ceased production for a week due to a worker's COVID-19 incident, and then resumed only limited production. In 2021, full production was restored. That same year, a cooperation agreement was signed with Sri Kaliswari Colour Match Works in India to produce matches for the Ukrainian market. Matchboxes produced in India differ only in a single bottom line added to state production site on backside.
Since 24 February 2022, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian government proclaimed martial law in Ukraine and called for blackout masking. Due to heavy Russian attacks on Ukrainian power plants and critical infrastructure, there were country wide uncontrolled power outages, resulting in daily shutdowns in all regions of Ukraine. This led to vastly increased use of candles and matches, and as a result the Ukrainian Matches Factory increased its production. Also, imports of goods from Belarus and Russia were almost totally sanctioned, including import of matches. These imports had sustained up to a third of the match market in Ukraine, with another third coming from India and Pakistan.
In 2024, the Ukrainian Match Factory joined the Ukrainian national cashback reward program Made in Ukraine. The same year, the company filed anti-dumping investigations against importers of matches from India and Pakistan.
In April 2025, anti-dumping measures were introduced to protect the Ukrainian Match Factory, with a 35.7% tariff on all Indian matches for a period of 5 years. On 18 July 2025, anti-dumping measures against Belarus' and Russia's matches import lifted due to the end of the 5-year period on those tariffs.
As of July 2025, the Ukrainian Match Factory uses 40 cubic metres of wood per day and produces 630 millions matchboxes per year. Production was ongoing 24/7 in 3 working shifts with around 250 workers in total.