Norwegian Andreas Loevstad Tranoey was immersed in acting in his home country when an unexpected idea invaded his mind. He couldn’t stop thinking about Ukraine, a dynamic post-Soviet country he had visited several times.
“Someone falls in love with Paris, and I fell in love with Ukraine,” Tranoey told the Kyiv Post.
By that time, Tranoey’s father, a Norwegian businessman, had already opened two clothing stores in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. He asked Tranoey to assist him in developing the business in the mysterious Eastern European country.
Fascinated by the opportunities, Tranoey, 36, decided to quit his acting career and moved to Ukraine in 2017. Little did he know he was about to start one of the greatest adventures of his life.
“I witnessed how the country was developing and its market growing, and I wanted to become a part of these changes,” Tranoey says.
Chaotic and intriguing
There has always been an interest in Eastern European countries in Tranoey’s family. Curious about other cultures and landscapes, the Norwegian family traveled a lot, including to the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.
In 2006, Tranoey’s mother and sister went to Odesa to study Russian at a local language school. Tranoey decided to visit his relatives. He came way pleasantly surprised by Odesa, the Black Sea port city of 1 million people 500 kilometers south of Kyiv.
“It felt like some southern country,” Tranoey says. “Beautiful architecture, buildings, streets, big avenues, great beaches and good food.”
Fascinated by Ukraine, Tranoey’s family soon came again, this time to visit Crimea, years before Russia stole the peninsula by military force in 2014. They traveled to some of the most prominent cities, Yalta, Sevastopol and Simferopol, did hiking in the mountains and stayed at the houses of local babushkas.
Tranoey was surprised by people offering to take photographs with wild animals such as crocodiles, snakes, and monkeys — a business prohibited in Europe but still common in Ukraine’s tourist destinations — as well as casinos on every corner.
“It felt very chaotic but also very intriguing and different from conservative Oslo,” Tranoey says.
In the years to follow, Tranoey would come back to Ukraine many times to explore its hidden gems and well-known attractions.
He was pursuing an acting career at a Norwegian traveling theater and local TV series when his father launched the first I Can clothing store in Kharkiv, a city of 1.4 million people some 478 kilometers east of Kyiv, in 2011.
By that time, Tranoey had acquired some experience in the fashion business as he worked at a high-end clothing store in Oslo for nearly five years as a student.
After the opening of the second store in 2013, Tranoey started traveling to Ukraine often. He says he was amazed by the transformation Ukraine underwent after the EuroMaidan Revolution ousted pro-Kremlin ex-President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. The uprising inspired a new generation of entrepreneurs and creators.
“When I went to Kharkiv 10 years ago for the first shop opening there was almost nothing here, only some restaurants and several shops. But it started to change so quickly,” Tranoey says.
That’s when Ukraine started to occupy his mind. Although he enjoyed acting, Tranoey says there were times when he was on the stage thinking about the stores in Kharkiv. “When I was at home in Oslo my mind was flying back to Ukraine,” Tranoey says.
So in 2017, he finally moved to Ukraine to head the I Can chain and start a new life.
NUCC support
Seeking a better understanding of the market, Tranoey temporarily relocated to Kyiv in 2018.
He soon found an opportunity that suited him perfectly and offered a quick dive into all things business. It was the Young Entrepreneurs program run by the Norwegian-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce. The program educates beginning entrepreneurs about the markets of the two countries. It is also offered for free since it’s funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Norwegian Andreas Loevstad Tranoey talks to the audience as he participates in the “Young Entrepreneur” business educational program by the Norwegian-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce in 2018. The program educates beginning entrepreneurs about the markets of Ukraine and Norway and holds seminars in the two countries. (NUCC)
Tranoey had lucky timing. The year he applied was also the first time the NUCC opened entries for the textile industry.
The program combined online and offline seminars in Ukraine and Norway, packed with useful business insights. Young Entrepreneurs connected him with like-minded people with an interest in Ukraine. It also gave him the feeling of support in a foreign country and was a way to “erase the borders between the cultures,” he says.
Almost three years after he finished the program, Tranoey is still in touch with the NUCC.
“They can support you in anything, if you have questions or difficulties they will try to find solutions,” Tranoey says. “If you have a good idea and you want to do something in Norway or Ukraine, they will stand by your side.”
Scandinavian fashion
When Tranoey relocated to Ukraine four years ago, he wanted to change the concept of the I Can chain.
I Can used to sell mainly Italian and Spanish apparel for men and women. “Everyone does that in Ukraine,” Tranoey says.
Apart from that, a Norwegian offering Italian and Spanish brands in Ukraine didn’t make much sense to him. His roots turned out to be the answer. He transformed the chain into multi-brand stores that sell clothes from Scandinavian designers, rarely found in Ukraine. “The kind of store that I would shop in,” he says.
There are currently three I Can stores in Kharkiv, with the latest one opened nearly two weeks ago. The chain offers the best of Scandinavian fashion, selling simple and high-quality products from such acclaimed brands as Swedish Dr. Denim and Danish accessory label Nunoo.
Tranoey hasn’t been to Norway for nearly two years, joking that he’s afraid he would not understand the Norwegian language anymore. He says he feels a bit more Ukrainian now.
“Every year my friends ask me how I want to celebrate my birthday and I usually say that I want it the Ukrainian style, which means we will go to some park, rent ‘besedka’ and do the ‘shashlik’,” he laughs.
Even though Ukraine has its challenges, Tranoey plans to continue developing his chain and even test the new waters of the restaurant industry.
“There is room for so much in Ukraine,” Tranoey says. “For me, it’s the most interesting country in Europe and even the world.”
