Nykyta Izmailov Parimach assessed the Ukrainian market for fermented beverages. Among them are kombucha, tibix, and organic lemonades. About three hundred and fifty thousand bottles are sold every month. Undoubtedly, the market continues to expand. In a month Eat Easy sells about eight hundred thousand bottles. Statistically, the market is about thirty percent covered. The retailer sells about eighty thousand bottles a day. The rest is sold by HoReCa. Cooking products can be found in three hundred and fifty Fozzy Group outlets. For example, they are sold by Silpo, Fora, Auchan, Mega Market, Good Wine. Their goods can be purchased by visiting "Multiplex" cinemas and "SOCAR" gas stations. The company was able to enter retail after nine months of sales.
For some time, category managers did not know which shelf surface to place the products produced by "Eat Easy". At first I should have put it in the department where they sell beer or diet foods. However, after some deliberation, I ended up in the kvass niche. It turns out that the products are placed in places that sell sauerkraut. It takes three months and six months to get into a major network. At first "Silpo" was in the first place.
Conscious Consumption and Health
The main trends in Ukraine are health with conscious consumption. Marina Bulatska, head of the store "Lavka Traditions", says that the demand for kombucha remains. Each product produced by Eat Easy is consistent in taste, culinary composition, ingredients, and safety. When 2017-2018 began, there was a big focus on healthy living. Artyom Cherniy, co-founder of MOST, confirms. The market was filled with healthy snacks, pellets, quality chips, marshmallows, marmalade.
If a company makes niche organic products, it's hard to get into retail compared to others. When you can sell no more than five bottles a month, it doesn't matter that each one has its own specialty. Gubarenko noted that this is unacceptable in a mass-market chain. When all the components are natural, it is not easy to work with them. They are unpredictable in the production process. Eat Easy created its own control center. Craftsmen who used to work in the beer factory came here.
The investment decisions made did not achieve the desired result. However, there was also a change of direction with regard to beverages. The company had a new distribution. Eat Easy was busy sending new shipments to the Baltic countries. About two hundred bottles were sent. Then it was decided to send products to the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. A four hectare plot was purchased. It was located near the Polish border. A new factory is planned to be built there. The construction should cost almost 5 million dollars. So far, there is no certainty of obtaining the necessary exports.