C3C Engineering: Strategic supplier screening & due diligence for operational expansion in Ukraine
Client
C3C EngineeringClient Overview:
C3C Engineering is a Swedish company specialising in precast concrete solutions, including storage halls, retaining walls, and prefabricated buildings. Their innovative block system is the concrete industry’s equivalent of Lego, ensuring flexible and cost-effective storage and logistics solutions.
Targeting clients in various sectors such as agriculture, infrastructure, and community protection, C3C Engineering is committed to sustainability and adapting to industry needs. The company focuses on developing environmentally friendly and constructionally smart solutions to support creating a safer and more optimised work environment.
The Challenge:
C3C Engineering sought to establish a resilient and cost-effective supply chain in Western and Central Ukraine to support its operational expansion within the scope of its framework agreement with the Swedish Agency for Civil Defense (Myndigheten för civilt försvar).
The key challenge was to establish strong contact with potential partners that could be interested in collaborating with C3C Engineering.
Our Approach:
Civitta supported the client by developing a long- and shortlist of companies in target regions using desk research and initial screening. A high-level due diligence was conducted for the shortlisted potential partners, including ownership reviews, financial and tender participation analysis, and business activities validation.
The project was carried out in three phases:
- Phase I – Longlist development and filtering
After extracting data for companies working in the concrete manufacturing sector in Ukraine, the pre-defined criteria were applied to identify relevant potential partners.
The following steps were completed:
– Refined the list to include only active legal entities in target regions in Western and Central Ukraine
– Applied a revenue threshold to remove companies with insufficient production potential
– Removed companies with no functioning website and irrelevant production line
The result of Phase I was a refined longlist of companies. - Phase II – Shortlist
The list was further narrowed down to select the companies for initial outreach.
The main criteria were:
– Prioritising companies producing modular solutions (i.e., modular blocks & modular shelters) and other large items made of concrete (e.g., building blocks)
– The additional criteria included the availability of ISO certification and production capacity per day (if information was available on the company’s website)
As a result of Phase II, a comprehensive short list of entities was developed for further outreach. - Phase III – Potential partners outreach
The team initiated early contact with shortlisted companies to identify potential partners interested in exploring further collaboration opportunities with C3C Engineering.
The following activities were conducted:
– Refined the list to add companies in adjacent sectors (e.g., construction) identified through desk research
– Contacted 25+ selected entities via email or phone to ascertain their perception of the client’s value proposition
– Facilitated business meetings between C3C Engineering and interested suppliers in Ukraine to explore collaboration opportunities
Additionally, following the meetings, we conducted a high-level due diligence assessment on selected potential partners to validate their operational, legal, and financial reliability.
The result of Phase III was the established relationship between the client and potential partners in Ukraine.
Results & Impact:
C3C Engineering received a comprehensive overview of potential collaboration opportunities in Ukraine, including a prioritised shortlist of entities in target regions. In addition, the initial outreach and facilitation of further business meetings enabled the establishment of relationships with promising partners who expressed interest in long-term cooperation.
The project also has the potential to strengthen Ukraine’s resilience, as the manufactured blocks will be utilised for the construction of protective infrastructure around critical facilities. This contributes to Civitta’s effort in supporting Ukraine during the ongoing war and its post-war reconstruction.
Services Provided:
- Company data collection, validation, analysis, and ranking
- Initial partner outreach and facilitation of business contact between the client and the Ukrainian companies
- Organization of the offline meetings with the potential Ukrainian partner companies.
- Potential partners screening (including general business activities and potential reputational risks, corporate structure, relevant court cases, financial indicators, and tender participation)
Testimonials:
”We strive to provide practical solutions for our clients that strengthen their position and bring positive impact to the communities where we operate. Within cooperation with C3C, we have managed to achieve all of these”
Ivan Khomenko
“We have been fortuned to be working with very dedicated specialists from Civitta in close teamwork, this has been most fruitful to understand the local business development opportunities. We get serviced with retrieving local interesting data, reports, open discussions within our field of operations. Always quick to support us, make conclusions and promote decisions off the actual situations on a fast-track towards long-term business relationships with other parties”
Tobias A. Runbjörk
Key Takeaways:
- Contacting 25+ vetted companies directly, rather than blanket outreach, produced better results in the Ukraine supplier due diligence project.
- A three-stage process – long list, shortlist, outreach – applied stricter criteria at each step, avoiding early rejection of good companies.
- Including general construction firms alongside pure concrete manufacturers surfaced enough strong modular suppliers.
- Full legal, financial, reputational due diligence was reserved for companies that showed real interest, keeping the work focused.
- Prioritizing the client’s target regions from the outset (Western Ukraine) kept outreach fast and relevant.
- The resulting precast concrete supply chain supports protective infrastructure – tying the work to Civitta’s broader role in Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction.
