Dan Tyler, the founder of print and signage installation specialist Vism and a board member of Fespa UK, has hailed the print industry’s efforts to support the people of Ukraine amidst the ongoing Russian invasion.
Mr Tyler, whose company has an office in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, put out a call last week for the sector to do more to support the victims of the attack. In the days since, his efforts have seen a website (printforukraine.co.uk), a Go Fund Me page and a logistics network established, with companies across the UK donating financial aid and other supplies.
The logistics network, which is utilising Vism’s contacts in both Ukraine and neighbouring Poland, is collecting and moving essential items, including medicine, to those in need. Companies looking to contribute can find out more information from the aforementioned website.
Donations are being gathered at a depot in Gravesend, Kent, where Outdoor Logistics UK are providing a hub and onward transport to Poland, supported by global logistics provider DSV. After the supplies have arrived in Poland volunteer organisations from Lviv then get everything over the border and begin the process of distributing to those in need.
Finally the Go Fund Me page which has been created and is being managed by Fespa UK, is allowing people to contribute financially and enabling the organisers to buy additional items and include them in their shipments.
Mr Tyler commented on the industry’s response to his call to arms, saying, ‘This has snowballed quite quickly. At the beginning of the week, I started working with a contact in Lviv to get cash donations to them so they could buy medicines and other essentials. We helped a couple of people in the Netherlands and France get some items they’d collected over to Ukraine, and now we’ve ended up working as a team of volunteers in the UK and Europe to shift as much essential stuff over there as possible.
‘Matt at Outdoor Logistics UK approached me on LinkedIn when he saw something I’d posted, and we quickly realised there were lots of people willing to help and that we could get something going pretty quickly. The guys at DSV jumped in offering help when they saw we needed it and now it’s flying.’
