Very often, it is the issues of selling their products, including their certification, that become a stumbling block for beginning entrepreneurs. Which can be especially annoying for a person who is one step away from realizing his dream - creating a profitable environmentally friendly mushroom production. The Center for Environmental Programs is ready to provide sales support finished products everyone who wants to realize their dream!

Let's try to list all possible sales channels for mushrooms:

1. Retail- with its shops various formats comes to mind first. A mushroom grower can offer his products for sale to another entrepreneur who has his own small store. It is also possible to rent a place at the market and sell mushrooms yourself. Large chain stores most likely will not allow a small manufacturer on their shelves - they are interested in supply volumes of several tons.

Of course, in order to be allowed to trade food products in our country, you need to complete the appropriate documentation:

A-you must register as individual entrepreneur or how entity;

B- have legally obtained technical specifications for your products (you will most likely have to buy them);

IN- issue a certificate of conformity for your products at the Center for State Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance;

G- provide quality certificates for each batch of products offered for sale.

2. Wholesale- it is quite possible that your offer will be of interest to a reseller at a wholesale base or the owner of a small network of vegetable stalls. In this case, having lost in price, you will save time and effort.

3. Canteens, cafes, restaurants- what was previously called catering, and now the newfangled word ferret. Naturally, business owners Catering We are interested in the freshness and quality of products and of course will be happy to receive your supplies.

4. Sales through friends- you (and perhaps your employees) probably have friends who love mushrooms; they have friends with the same tastes. By organizing trade “by appointment” and making arrangements for delivery, you will find a large number of consumers of your products.

5. Recycling- the disadvantage of all of the above distribution channels is the seasonality of demand. As a rule, in Russia there is a huge demand for mushrooms in winter. Especially during holidays and fasting. In summer, demand decreases significantly. In order not to experience interruptions in the sale of mushrooms, it is best to be able to offer them to processing industries. After all, mushrooms can be frozen, dried, pickled, or pickled. They are also used in cooking various types cheeses, pates, dumplings, dumplings and pizzas, after all.

6. And finally, the most convenient option that insures all your risks. You can donate fresh mushrooms to our company. At the same time, you do not need to register as a legal entity or individual entrepreneur, you do not need to buy technical specifications, you do not need to certify your mushrooms, you do not need to issue a quality certificate. There is no need to even buy anything from our company. We will simply accept all your mushrooms at a price of up to 120 rubles. for 1 kilogram without any problems.

The first mushrooms appeared on the shelves of the capital's markets a few days ago. To the question: “Where do chanterelles come from?” - the sellers grin: “Local, from the Moscow region.” But it turned out that the traders were lying. Mushrooms are now mainly brought to the capital from the Vladimir region.

That's where I decided to go. I think I’ll buy it there and then resell it in Moscow. I'll try my hand at the mushroom business...

"COME EARLY!"

A mushroom picker I know, Volodya, advised me to go and stock up at the market in the Vladimir town of Sobinka, which is 150 km from Moscow. Local residents bring goods from the surrounding forests here. I leave by car at nine in the morning, but due to traffic jams I arrive in Sobinka only at noon. Here I am disappointed: there are no mushrooms on the shelves!

Son, you should have come in the evening! - the grandmother selling blueberries pities me. - Mushrooms are picked early in the morning. Buyers come to us for them, with boxes. And they buy in bulk.

Yeah, and give them only small mushrooms, don’t take big ones so they don’t rot in a few days,” the woman mutters displeasedly from a nearby spot. - And the money they pay for this is meager - only 100 rubles per kilo of chanterelles!

Women persuade me to buy berries from them. A one and a half liter jar of blueberries sells for just a hundred.

Cheaper - only in the forest! - grandmothers pass me the berries. - And since you really want mushrooms, go to Lakinsk.

Lakinsk is a town about the same as Sobinka. Many people here don’t have a job, so they look forward to the fruit and berry season like a vacation in Anapa.

And they sold the mushrooms! - happy local resident Egor throws up his hands. He had already managed to exchange the rubles he had earned for vodka.

And this is how it is every day,” his wife Marina sighs, looking sideways at Yegor. - We go to the forest together in the morning, and this guy drinks almost all his money...

WHERE WE COLLECTED, WHERE WE SOLD

We managed to find the mushrooms only on the way back. From traders on the side of the Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod federal highway. Their prices are outrageous: a kilogram of chanterelles costs three hundred!

Nevertheless, at the forest market (about thirty people trade here) there is a whole queue of foreign cars: drivers willingly buy mushrooms and berries.

Why are they so expensive? - I ask the sellers, nodding at the chanterelles. - Did you bring them from Kamchatka?

Not from Kamchatka. - The woman looks at me with condemnation. - And dear ones, because there are few mushrooms these days...

For the sake of experiment, I buy two bags (each containing about a kilo of mushrooms). 250 rubles per bag.

What if there are chanterelles and toadstools mixed there? - I ask suspiciously.

There are no toadstools there! “We’ve been selling here for seven years, no one has complained,” the aunt shrugged it off.

“Well, yes,” I think, “whoever eats toadstools will not come to be indignant...”

MARKET SECRETS

I decide to resell the purchased mushrooms on the same day. Returning to the capital, I head to the indoor market - “Butyrsky”. There are no places inside the market: they are bought here in advance. I sit down at the exit, next to the grandmothers. They sell berries and vegetables here every day.

Are they driving you out of here? - I turn to my neighbor, who is sorting out strawberries.

Why! - she exclaims. - Every other day they scare me.

Do they require money?

“What can we, old women, take from us,” she sighs and begins to say: “We buy strawberries, fresh, straight from the garden!”

And we take mushrooms! - I pick it up and for some reason add: - From the forest.

People look at my goods with caution.

How much are you selling mushrooms, guy? - the plump lady asks me sternly.

Three hundred! For the package! - I name the price. But I think to myself: I need to make some money...

This morning I saw that the same number of mushrooms were sold for 200, and you were selling for 300,” the woman mutters. - Huckster!

It's a shame: I bought the bag myself for 250!

“Don’t worry,” my neighbor reassures me. And she looks at my jar of blueberries: “How much do you sell the berries?”

Berries? For 200. - I am modestly silent about the fact that I bought them for 100.

Granny grabs my one and a half liters of blueberries and pours the berries into glasses. Each - 120 rubles. She got five glasses from my jar. Total - 600 rubles. This is the market economy...

My grandmother’s blueberries were sorted out in just half an hour. And she again began to sort through her strawberries, laying out the rotten berries with their entire sides up.

If they notice, I’ll say that it was rained on,” the woman says conspiratorially.

In theory, all goods on the market should be checked by sanitary doctors. But no one came to me for several hours. Either they didn’t notice, or they decided that there was nothing to take from me...

An obese pensioner next door sells pickles. Transfers them from the basin to jars. One cucumber slips out of your hands and falls onto the asphalt. Grandma picks it up and puts it in the jar.

It'll turn sour! - I’m surprised.

They’ll eat it... - the grandmother waves her hand, yawning. And he advises:

And you can’t sell your mushrooms today. Go to the metro! People will come home from work and buy up.

I collect the goods and trudge to the Savelovskaya metro station. I’m standing like a poor relative, holding mushrooms in my hands.

About 30 minutes later a man stopped next to me.

How much do you sell mushrooms?

I look at the sun-dried chanterelles. And I hide my eyes in shame:

Get both packages for 300...

No, I'm not much of a trader. I took the chanterelles for 500. I sold them for 300...

While walking home, I counted my losses: on a trip to the Vladimir region I spent 700 rubles on gasoline, 500 on mushrooms, and another 100 on berries. Total 1300. Only 500 rubles were returned back - 200 was earned for berries, 300 for mushrooms.

But if I had bought mushrooms from the aborigines in bulk, about twenty kilograms at a time, on the cheap, then I would have stayed in the black. Judge for yourself: for 20 kilos in Sobinka I would give two thousand rubles. Plus 700 rubles for gasoline. Total expenses are 2700 rubles. In Moscow markets, a kilogram of fresh forest mushrooms costs 400 rubles. If you manage to sell, you will get 8,000. Taking into account expenses - 5,300 rubles of net profit!

IN last years, I don’t know whether this is due to the not very stable financial situation of some of our fellow citizens or to the profitability of such an occupation, the business of forest products has become widespread.

Thousands of buyers of berries and mushrooms register their “business” and travel around cities and towns, inviting people who want to earn a little extra money during the holiday season to pick berries and mushrooms in the forest and hand them over to them for a certain fee, sometimes, by the way, quite a decent one.

The fact is that in Europe such products are wildly popular. Blueberries, cranberries and blackberries are added to ice cream, expensive mousses, syrups, puddings and other equally tasty things are made. Mushrooms are pickled, canned or simply frozen, and then sold to restaurants and cafes, where visitors have to pay at most about fifteen to twenty euros for one small portion of such a delicacy. This kind of frozen products is also popular among ordinary Europeans, who have the opportunity to purchase them frozen in super and hypermarkets.

The current situation is actively taken advantage of by efficient food producers who make decent money from the desire of Europeans to taste the most useful gifts of our rich nature.

At first glance, such a business may seem quite risky, because the berry can simply go bad even before arriving at its destination, especially in light of the “excellent” work of our customs. But this is only if you do not carefully think through all the stages of such work.

Today it is quite possible to rent refrigeration equipment, which will immediately solve the main problem with the shelf life of berries and mushrooms and minimize the risk of getting into trouble. The fact that the “frost” will be rented will significantly reduce the initial costs of doing business.

As a rule, flights to the Baltic and European countries with such goods are carried out once a week. During this time, the hired employees manage to travel around about a hundred villages, where procurement points have already been opened in advance, where the delivery of flattering products is proceeding briskly. Every evening a car arrives at the “point” and loads fresh products into the refrigeration equipment. There are villages where you can receive up to a thousand tons of blueberries and hundreds of tons of chanterelles and porcini mushrooms per day. After all, neither young nor old in the village refuses to earn extra money.

After this, the goods are concentrated in the main warehouse, where they await shipment beyond the border. Each flight brings the owner of such a business, depending on the volume of goods, from three to ten thousand euros. From this money you need to subtract funds to pay for the rental of equipment, warehouses, transportation costs, wages employees and taxes, in the end, a good amount remains. Often, large buyers negotiate with local residents to have the opportunity to open procurement centers right in their homes. The owner of the household is provided with scales, containers and other items necessary for work. For his work, such a villager receives a reward. It is worth noting that in summer period Not only large procurers, but also smaller buyers are engaged in such business. For example, there are people who negotiate with the local population, who donate flattering products not to procurement centers, but directly to a private individual, and often a variety of marketing tricks are used, for example, this same private owner himself picks up the goods directly at the home of the person who bought it collected.

Such a business is beneficial to everyone, because a person who has worked in the forest all day and is quite tired does not really want to carry the collected goods somewhere; it is much better if they bring the money directly to his house and pick up the mushrooms and berries themselves.

The so-called small “reseller” does not seek to enter the European market; literally the next day he goes to a large market in a large urban center located nearby, and makes a good profit on the previously purchased goods.

It is worth noting that every year there are more and more people who buy and resell flying gifts, and they also enter into competition with private traders state enterprises. Such healthy competition plays into the hands of people who directly collect flattering products, because everyone knows the main law of economics: the greater the demand, the higher the price.

The most important thing is to do everything better than for yourself. Our northern berries - blueberries, lingonberries, cranberries - are the most expensive in the world. And one does not dare spoil them,” shares the founder and main ideological inspirer of the Berries of Karelia company, Ivan Petrovich Samokhvalov. Here they meticulously select gentle technologies for cleaning, freezing, processing and storing mushrooms and berries, chemical-free recipes and the most environmentally friendly containers.

Harvesting berries

For more than ten years, Kostomuksha, the third largest city in Karelia, built to serve the Karelsky Okatysh mining and processing plant, has been known not only for its ore, but also for the industrial processing of mushrooms and berries. Raw materials from all over the republic are brought to the local production complex by trucks: the Samokhvalov family controls 90% of the purchases of berries from the population. To just one collection point, visible from the windows of the plant, people from all over the area hand over about 30 tons of berries every day, and at the peak of the harvest - up to 100 tons. The Murmansk region and the Komi Republic are covered; sea buckthorn comes from the Altai Territory; in case of crop failure, cranberries can be delivered from Siberia. In the Vologda, Pskov and Novgorod regions, they have to compete with their main rival - the Vologda Yagoda company (see "Business in wild plants", "Expert" No. 35 (865) dated September 2, 2013). Some of the berries are brought by pickers from Finland and Sweden, and this is a real victory. Previously, local residents stood in queues for hours at the border to sell the collected berries to the Finns (the Lyttä-Vartius border checkpoint is just 30 km away). “We have seen what a huge flow of berries Finnish and Swedish companies receive from Russia as raw materials. And how Russian people crawl through the forest for them. It’s not that patriotism played a major role, but it too: why can’t we do this ourselves? This is not some kind of space technology, but simply an investment of money and effort,” says Ivan Samokhvalov’s son Alexander, who is responsible for all purchasing and sales, production and logistics in the family business. The collectors were lured away by a sharp increase in purchase prices. In 2003, their choice was obvious: 52 rubles per kilogram here versus 17 rubles and the hassle of going through customs in Finland.

Having lost their main source of raw materials, today the main berry processors in Scandinavia - Olle Svensson AB (a division of Nordic Food Group) and Polarica AB - are forced to import labor from Thailand to maintain its position in the global market.

Berries of Karelia will also soon face the problem of a lack of pickers. Now the procurement network consists of 23 buyers, each managing 30-40 collection points, and approximately 100 people bring berries to all points. “With the help of simple calculations, it turns out that during the season we provide income to about 80.5 thousand people. That is, three populations of our Kostomuksha. And if there is other work in the city - at the plant, in wood processing and at other enterprises, then in the dying Karelian villages people wait all year for these two or three months. After all, they are the ones who feed the residents all winter,” shares Alexander. However, the rural population is rapidly declining, so it was decided to build a residential building next to the plant for 1 thousand people, and by 2016 to increase the number of temporary assemblers housed there to 10 thousand.

Processing and storage

After inspecting the berry collection point, according to strict instructions at the stand, we put on robes and caps and go into a bright room - a cloudberry sorting workshop. Oblivious to our delegation, two women carefully hand-pick leaves and overripe berries from the amber-yellow mountain. It is cloudberries that open the harvesting and purchasing season in July, but we are already facing the very last batch. Here it is packaged and then sent in the form of briquettes to be frozen. “The market for cloudberry consumption is Scandinavia. We control about 70% Russian market blanks. But these are only hundreds of tons - not the same volumes as for traditional round berries: blueberries, lingonberries, cranberries, which amount to thousands of tons,” Alexander Samokhvalov continues the tour. Crowberries, gooseberries, currants, chokeberries and red rowans are also supplied here, but in relatively small quantities.

With other berries, they do not stand on ceremony as with cloudberries: in the neighboring workshop, an automatic conveyor line rumbles - the preparation of the first batches of cranberries has begun. In an hour, up to 2 tons of berries undergo cleaning, washing, calibration, electronic sorting and packaging. Leaves, pebbles and debris are gradually removed from the stream of berries moving past us. Here, with the help of powerful magnets, all metal impurities are eliminated. After a different-sized sieve system and removal of the stalks, the cranberries enter an automatic washer, are blown with compressed air and supplied to the sorting unit. Equipment specially imported from England and Belgium carries out electronic control of berries using optical, laser and infrared cameras. Final manual control - and selected clean cranberries are packaged in 25 kg paper bags. Surprisingly, there are only seven people in the workshop. During busy times, work goes on in two shifts, but there is no rush.

Berries of Karelia also deals with mushrooms, their share is growing, but in the entire volume of procurement it is now less than 10%. “Collecting and preserving berries is much easier than mushrooms. But we also package and sell white boletus, boletus and moss mushrooms: half in Russia, half abroad, for example to Italians. There is demand - everything always goes to zero,” comments Alexander. All adjacent rooms are reserved for freezers. Some of the berries are stored fresh at temperatures from 0 to +2°C. “We recently launched the sale of fresh berries. We turned to old Karelian traditions and after two years of experiments we learned to preserve berries without freezing all year round. We also spent a long time working on packaging technology and found the secrets that allow the berries to breathe. Therefore, the product does not deteriorate within two months after packaging,” the Samokhvalovs show cells filled with shelves up to the ceiling.

In total, this production complex processes about 8 thousand tons of berries per year, this year it is planned to increase the volume to 10 thousand tons - the harvest is very large. “Every year we grow by 30%. But we have much more capacity - up to 15 thousand tons, and we are gradually moving towards at least this figure. And this is only one-time storage. But in fact, we can grow to 25 thousand tons - if only there was someone to collect and supply,” shares financial director– the eldest son of Ivan Samokhvalov Maxim, manager of finance, real estate, design and construction in the holding. Up to 60-70% of sales are exported. Wholesale supplies of berries are carried out to Danone, Valio, Fazer, Hortex, Miratorg. Alexander complements his brother: “Historically, we supply Scandinavia itself, while at the same time competing with it. There we managed to reach end consumers. We supply

to Denmark, Germany, Belgium and Holland. A lot of blueberries go to China. Now garden blueberries are in fashion in the world - the Chinese grow them themselves and are trying to sell them, including to Russia. But if you cut it, it is white inside. And our blueberries are completely black - full of anthocyanins, useful for maintaining visual acuity. About 100 kg of medicinal powder is obtained from a truckload of blueberries, which is then sold all over the world, mainly to Japan, America, and Australia.”

Production and products

While talking, we move to the neighboring industrial building. They pass us in orderly rows through the bottling workshop. glass bottles– are disinfected, filled with nectar heated to 87°C, and immediately cooled to preserve vitamins, and then packaged. The maximum productivity of the line is up to 6 thousand bottles per hour, but sales volumes have not yet kept pace with the technology. “In Kostomuksha, a city with a population of 30 thousand, we sell 3 thousand bottles of nectar per month. On a per capita basis this is a lot. We would sell 500 thousand bottles a month in St. Petersburg, but it’s not possible yet,” complains Alexander.

I look at the ingredients on the label: directly pressed lingonberry juice, sugar syrup. If you add less water, but more sugar, you get berry syrup, less juice - fruit juice. They also make 100% juice here, but it’s not for everybody – it’s too concentrated and tastes sour, explains Samokhvalov Sr. It is not sold at retail - it is produced only in industrial packaging. “In Europe, enzymes are added everywhere to break down the berries at the cellular level and extract as much juice as possible from them. Bacteria, even if they are not numerous and harmless, are still a foreign ingredient, and we decided to do without them,” Ivan Petrovich explains with pleasure, showing the conveyor line. – As you can see, this is a product that is not so difficult to make. But no one can do better than us - it’s already impossible to do better. It's all too simple."

The line of finished products includes jams, purees, and berry fillings. The line for the production of cranberries in powdered sugar is already more than half ready for launch. And installations for sublimation drying - gentle preservation by freezing while preserving the intercellular structure - will allow you to carefully dry berries for grinding into medicinal powder or making chocolate dragees. There are no such drying installations anywhere else in Russia, or in neighboring Finland either. New equipment is very expensive, so the lines have to be assembled bit by bit. They order something in St. Petersburg from intermediaries of Italian companies, but this is a very long process: you need to find the right installation, agree to buy it cheaper, deliver... I had to build my own workshop with a turning and milling machines, presses, welding machines. Six or seven mechanics work here - mostly older, even in their eighties: there were no young turners and milling operators in the city. “Our technological lines are a third or even half homemade. There are almost no industries left in our country - everything has been destroyed, and the machine park can be bought for pitiful pennies. So the design engineer and I develop all the equipment: we figure out how it works and follow the example. We argue, we swear, but we do it. Even best quality, what they offer us to buy, for example, in Chelyabinsk,” explains Samokhvalov Sr.

The situation with engineering personnel in Kostomuksha is difficult. Father and sons go to foreign enterprises to gain experience. They invite specialists to their place in Kostomuksha. “I try to thoroughly study every issue and never refuse advice. From time to time I bring in smart people who give lectures on organizing production. There is a veterans' society in Germany - they recommended a good technologist. And so a German, an old guy with a translator, taught us here. Sublimation specialists came to me from Moscow, and when I was coming up with a juice factory, I persuaded the head of the department from the legendary Michurinsky Agrarian University in the Tambov region to come. Even at the St. Petersburg Refrigeration Institute, I proved to everyone: “You train boys and girls, and then in Germany, in two or three weeks, they finish their training and turn them into your workers. Do you have at least something in your soul from a moral point of view? You work, and the Germans intercept the fruits of your labor and turn the guys, in fact, into sellers of their goods. But you don’t support your own producers.” In the end, I convinced them to come and confer,” says the head of the family.

Start

Here, at the juice plant at his headquarters, Ivan Petrovich says that he started his business in the late 1980s, when the very concept of “business” in Russia was still familiar to few people. At that time, an electronics engineer worked at a mining and processing plant and worked part-time as a private driver, and also traveled to St. Petersburg, where he bought microcircuits on the market for assembling radios, sinclairs and the first computers.

The year 1990 was a turning point. “I came home one day,” the businessman recalls. – We sat down at the table, my wife poured soup. We already had three children, and the youngest son began to cry that he wanted meat. I threw down the spoon, went out into the corridor, lit a cigarette and began to think: “Mother of God, why? I studied, I tried, I graduated from school with a medal, and I graduated from college. I live in the North, I work at a mining and processing plant in a very harmful conditions. I do not drink. But I can’t give my child the most basic things!” This was the beginning, the starting point. At that time, my friends ran computer rooms, and I repaired joysticks. Somehow I mentally reached into my pocket, calculated my income and expenses, and I was seduced by it. So I started thinking about own business. Actually, it's just greed."

The start was extremely unsuccessful. There was no money of his own, and the entrepreneur turned to the bank. The loan - 250 thousand rubles at 15% per annum (the Zhiguli car then cost about 9 thousand) - was obtained only for a bribe - 10% immediately went into the pockets of the creditors. The business idea was to produce plastic products. Suitable machines were found in Odessa; for their supply, the plant director, in addition to the cost, asked for two more timber machines - also as a bribe. There was no room either. When we finally managed to find and expand a small basement by manually digging out the ground, the SES and fire inspection did not allow us to place equipment there. The machines had to be taken out, and then they were completely stolen. “I tried to come up with something else, but, having no experience and no brains in terms of business or managing finances, I lost everything. I had only one thought in my head: to get out of my skin and give this money away. In general, there was crazy theft at the bank, but I realized that later, but oh well,” says the entrepreneur.

Times were hard, store shelves were empty, and Ivan Samokhvalov took up trading. Traveled to Moldova, Western Ukraine. I carried boards, televisions and electronics there, and back - plastic film and products, mainly sugar. At that time, the establishment of borders was just beginning; sugar was a strategic raw material, and it was very difficult to export it. The businessman says: “I didn’t do anything. In St. Petersburg, for example, I made my way to the management of the Moscow department store or the Electronics store with a proposal to sell their goods in Kostomuksha and bring money very honestly and conscientiously. They looked at me like I was sick. From the outside it was funny, but I did it.” Still, he managed to negotiate and, without a penny of money, filled an old, old minibus with goods. He went to his North, made a minimum markup, sold and brought back the money - and so on in a circle. “So I slowly got back on my feet. And not only did I pay back the entire loan, but I learned how to earn money and realized that this process is probably the most interesting for me, more interesting than anything else than spending money. Maybe this is not very correct, but it is so,” says the businessman.

Doing business at that time was life-threatening. Ivan Samokhvalov’s trade was gaining momentum, and local bandits paid attention to him. But he did not succumb to blackmail - give up the business or die. “Eight years ago there was a real Kushchevka here. The bandits were local, from Belarus or Chelyabinsk - real moral monsters. They merged very closely with the prosecutor's office, the police, and the authorities. They had a monopoly on everything.

And they suggested to me: “Either you will do what we tell you, or we will kill your children one by one, and you last, so that you see all this,” the entrepreneur reluctantly says. – Now it seems easy, but in reality it was difficult and risky. Either the tax office is pinching you and is about to put you in prison, then your competitors are ordering you, then the bandits are killing you, your children are being slaughtered. I've been through it all. The eldest son received a knife in the stomach, and I also somehow returned from the other world. They beat me with bats, put a bullet in my head, then they jumped on me, breaking my bones.”

At the risk of his life, the businessman, who did not agree to compromise, still gradually managed to develop his business. First own grocery store he opened in 1991. Five years later, a dumpling production appeared, and in 1998 - a meat processing workshop, its own freezers and sausage production, a base in the Volgograd region with a honey packaging workshop. In the early 2000s, we built our own shopping mall with an area of ​​5.5 thousand square meters. m, a taxi service is open. But the second significant year for Ivan Samokhvalov’s business was precisely 2003, when the idea came to create the Berries of Karelia company. She became a real find and the center of all further entrepreneurial activity families.

Forced diversification

While most entrepreneurs strive, if not to Moscow and St. Petersburg, then at least to regional administrative centers, all of Ivan Samokhvalov’s projects are based in Kostomuksha. The businessman, of course, made attempts to expand beyond the district, but they were unsuccessful. The first reason is staff theft. “I learned the hard way that if a business in Russia is located somewhere far from you, then you can confidently assume that it is not yours. In Kostomuksha and neighboring settlements - Medvezhyegorsk, the villages of Muezersky, Rugozero, Segezha - I had about 15 small shops, for which I mainly remodeled apartments.

And they stole terribly everywhere, although people in these towns had no other job and I thought that any job should be for happiness. And it’s very insulting: you’re struggling so much (then the firefighters demand wheels for the Volga for the required signature, then something else), and in the end those to whom you gave the job rob you,” the businessman complains.

Now the Samokhvalovs are actively cooperating with retailers. Berries of Karelia products can be found in Perekrestok, Magnit, Stockmann, Azbuka Vkusa, Land, and Auchan. And in 1999, the entrepreneur’s own stores themselves made up trading network“Slavs” was at that time the largest in Karelia. But due to lack of control, they only brought losses. At the same time, the interregional chains Magnit and Pyaterochka began making attempts to enter the market retail in the north of Karelia. The businessman explains the decision to close his retail outlets this way: “Their price level is not much lower. But the arrangement of goods and the layout of the store are thought out much better and more beautiful, more convenient for the buyer. Manufacturers always half-bend to bring products to them; no one asks for money for six months, just to put them on the shelves. Networks were able to create such conditions, but small businesses cannot do this. And it immediately became clear that we had to leave, otherwise they would trample us. Of course, at that time it was still possible to compete with them, but somehow it never occurred to me. To do this, it was necessary to create a security service, hire security guards, but simply trust would not work because of total theft.”

The enterprise for purchasing and packaging honey closed for the same reason, and Ivan Samokhvalov realized that “you need to develop the business where you live, never enter other people’s territories and not do business where you are not.” But there was also a positive experience - the entrepreneur decided that in the new berry business it would be difficult for non-Karelian companies to compete with him: remotely manage purchases based on large quantities cash, because of the same theft is very difficult.

The second obstacle to business development in Kostomuksha is the isolation of the city and poor transport infrastructure. The distance to Petrozavodsk is about 500 km, to St. Petersburg – 930, the road is very bad in some places. “When I bought sausage in St. Petersburg, the car arrived here, as a rule, late in the evening or at night. In the morning, the goods had to be received, delivered to stores, re-weighed, and a price set. And sausages, for example, have a shelf life of 48 hours. That is, we brought them - and now we have to throw them away. The understanding has come that they need to be made here,” Ivan Samokhvalov explains the reasons for creating local production. But with the closure of our own stores, we also had to abandon the workshops.

The third limiting factor is limited demand. On a scale small town Not all business projects and productions can be launched at full capacity. Thus, there was a clear lack of clients for the taxi service. But at the same time, the “Slavyane” bakery with a confectionery shop, opened in 2005, turned out to be truly profitable. Now this enterprise occupies about 60% of the market in the city, supplying various bakery products both to its own network retail outlets, and to other stores in the city, kindergartens, schools, hospitals, orphanages.

All other areas of activity that have proven their viability (bakery, shopping and warehouse centers, design and construction company, beauty center, furniture and household goods supermarket) are now united into a holding company, which received the same name “Berries of Karelia”. This is the largest of all small enterprises in the city with a serious bid to move into the niche of medium and then large business.

The entrepreneur recognizes that from the point of view of running a business, dealing with many things at the same time various directions ineffective. However, he is driven primarily by curiosity and interest to create new enterprises. And secondly, the understanding that every free niche he sees will be filled by someone someday: “So why not me? And the previous ideas, in fact, already work without me.”

Residents say that Ivan Petrovich goes to one of the bakeries every day to buy fresh baked goods and at the same time checks the quality. This makes sense to him:

“I often go into my bakery and say that the juices they make there seemed tasteless to me. I always explain the following to my employees: let’s imagine a small store on Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg. A man came there, bought something and left – almost forever. Because it is a very big city and there are a lot of buyers. There are residents of nearby houses, but there are many more who come once. There you can cheat, lie on labels. It's not necessary, but the opportunity is there. Not every person will go to make a scandal and prove something to the SES. Most people will endure it and not bother. But in little Kostomuksha you can’t do this - it’s simply criminal. If we dared to deceive the client here, then we must understand that we deceived ourselves. We made bad pies, bought 100 people, and they won’t come again. We will notice this immediately - our business will be shaken. We’ll deceive someone else, cheat, and that’s it, let’s go look for work. There is no other confectionery shop in the city. So I gather women and begin to hammer these things into them. From time to time I go there and look, sniff out, look for flaws: what if I can fix something, install some kind of machine, improve something, come up with new products? The chief technologist graduated from the institute and remembers that according to GOST, so much filling is supposed to be added to pies - 32 grams, or something. I say: “I don’t care about these conditions! Put more.” And the technologist almost cries: “Look: there’s not much room to fit in here, just understand!” But I know that if there is more filling in the pie, it will become tastier. This is how I terrorize them so that it tastes good.”

“Business for me is a constant mathematical calculation, day and night. But without the thought of robbing or devouring someone. I always try to play fairly and build my business according to the principle of “one thing at a time.” It is clear that there is added value in any business. It can be made large, or small, but the volume must be large. I always tried to make a small markup, but stretch the business to larger volumes. Then, with ideal quality, our products will be the best for people.”

Kostomuksha – Petrozavodsk – St. Petersburg

Berries - product High Quality

General Director of the Land premium supermarket chain Ilya Shtrom:

We have been cooperating with Berries of Karelia since January 2013. During this time, the partner has proven himself to be the most the best side- We had no problems with supplies. On the shelves of our supermarkets there is almost the entire assortment of “Berries of Karelia”: delicious and healthy nectars, frozen mushrooms and berries, fresh high-quality cranberries.