Kiril Berovski

* 1952

  • “August used to be a month off for the whole company. Even our customers knew we didn’t operate in August. We went to see our parents in Bulgaria. On 13th August 2002 I got a phone call from Prague: “Kirča, you got flooded!” I wasn’t coping well but I thought to myself: “Come on, I’m not going to kill myself.” I drank a few shots and sat with my wife to talk about what we were going to do. We figured that we first had to see the damage before deciding. We only got there a month later, although it wasn’t possible at first, whole areas were closed down. We had warehouses in Holešovice where everything was underwater. We opened the garage and there were two new cars, completely destroyed. A van and a Mondeo, completely destroyed. We had thirty-seven thousand bottles of wine stored in there. I brought them to the warehouse in three trucks in July. I had an agreement with my suppliers that I would pay them in several installments. I was never able to pay. The state food safety inspector ordered us to throw all of it away. We even had to pay for the containers to transport the goods. I have to admit that we kept two pallets and got horribly drunk with my partners. What was there left for us to do? Then I sat down with my lady and we talked about our options. We decided to continue the business. It had a good name, I was well-known everywhere, I even went on television several times to talk about wine, we were doing great. But we weren’t insured against this kind of flood. We started paying our debt. Within five or six years we managed to get rid of some of it but later we realised that we wouldn’t be able to make it. Not by honest work. We paid our suppliers, started paying the bank loans and then we went bankrupt. It was just awful! I’m not used to turning my back to problems, I always try looking for solutions. But the business was over. That was when I started to look for part-time jobs. I worked at a train station, I don’t think there’s any shame in that. My lady also found a job. Life went on.“

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    Asociace bulharských spolků, Praha 2, 20.09.2016

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Nature has given us ears and mouths so that we can understand each other

Kiril Berovski, 1974
Kiril Berovski, 1974
photo: album pamětníka

Kiril Berovski was born on 19th October 1952 in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital, as an only child. From the age of six he was active in sports, he played football. After finishing elementary school he studied at an engineering high-school until 1970 when he passed his final exams. He also passed the entry exams to a sports university the same year and he also joined the mandatory two-year military service, during which he got married. His wife went to study at the University of Economics in Prague which motivated Kiril to move there as well in 1972. After a Czech language course at the University of 17th November in Holešov he entered a study programme at the Faculty of Education and Sport of the Charles University. In 1974 their son was born. Kiril and his wife finished their studies in the academic year of 1977/78 and returned to Sofia, soon after that their daughter was born. Kiril worked as a coach and later benefited from his sports and coaching experience at the Ministry of Interior where he worked as a criminal expert. In 1998 Kiril founded a wine import company with a former classmate. After his business partner’s death he continued to run the company alone, later his wife helped him manage it. The family moved to the Czech Republic again. In 2002 the company lost all property due to floods. In 2013 Kiril became the president of the Bulgarian Clubs Association. He has since retired and as of today he lives in Prague with his wife.