It took Alexey Gribin three years and 500,000 rubles to get started with his business idea. investments. The first batch of birch sap under the “7 Birches” brand appeared on sale only last year, but immediately became noticeable on the market.
Useful technology
To produce such a specific product as birch or maple sap, certain knowledge is needed. They are even much more important than the necessary equipment. “I’ve been involved in this production at a fairly serious level for four years now, but I understand that I’ll probably only get full knowledge on this issue in three years,” says Gribin.
Firstly, birch sap needs to be collected correctly. And there are many nuances in this matter. For example, Alexey Gribin collects exclusively clear sap before the wound on the tree begins to ferment, and this is not so easy to do during the season - you need to do everything in three weeks. Therefore, Gribin has improved the technology, which allows him to collect for a whole month.
Secondly, we must try to preserve the resulting product and sell it. The simplest method, which most Russian producers resort to, is preservatives: to be on the safe side, they add sugar and citric acid to the juice. And then the juice is pasteurized, which certainly reduces its value and changes its taste. In Europe, against the backdrop of increasing demand for environmentally friendly and natural products, manufacturers are trying to make juice without sugar. So Gribin clearly decided for himself that he needed to try to “retain” the natural taste of the juice as much as possible.
What does the technology for collecting birch sap improved by Gribin look like in modern conditions? From the outside, everything seems quite simple. First you need to make a hole in the bark, and then fix a medical dropper in it and attach a medical tube to it, through which the juice will flow. In this case, everything must be sterile. The collected product is cleaned using an ultraviolet lamp and frozen in the freezer in order to preserve its beneficial properties.
The technology that Alexey Gribin uses is similar to what is used in Canada and the USA when collecting maple sap. In these same countries, birch sap production is now being actively developed. Europe has also joined the trend, with juice supplied mostly by Latvia and Lithuania. But the small Baltic countries do not have unlimited resources for export. Russian producers can also offer their birch sap to Europe, Gribin is sure.
Tree shortage
For a budding entrepreneur, the main task today is to organize a permanent farm for collecting sap, but this requires a forest. Only a small part of the trees that Gribin now uses belong to him; some of the juice was brought in by collectors this year; the use of other trees has to be negotiated with people or organizations directly. The issue with trees and, accordingly, with raw materials becomes more acute every year, as production gradually increases.
“I have 15 hectares in mind, but this plot still needs to be obtained,” Alexey Gribin explains the essence of the problem. “The fact is that all sites are allocated for competition, so the fact that you have found a suitable site does not mean that you will get it.”
Another difficulty that the novice entrepreneur faced was the high tariff for renting land for the extraction of tree sap from the state in the Leningrad region. For a liter of juice you will now have to pay 11 rubles. In Belarus, for example, it costs almost three times cheaper - 4 rubles. per liter of juice.
To relieve yourself of part of the financial burden, you could try to get government grants for beginning farmers. But in order to count on them, you need to meet a number of requirements, one of which is the official registration of people into the company’s staff. Alexey Gribin is in no hurry to take advantage of this opportunity, having his own reasons: “The money is allocated for five years, during which time most of it will be spent on salaries. Therefore, not everyone strives to receive these grants, even those who are developing quite well.”
The problem is that the very specifics of the business do not imply hiring permanent workers. The entire production process is divided into two stages: the first is the season when the procurement takes place, the second is the sale, which takes place throughout the year. Workers are needed precisely at the procurement stage. “This year the season lasted 2.5 months,” says the entrepreneur. - We started by collecting maple sap, and then moved on to birch sap. As a result, we managed to involve quite a large number of people.”
In total, 10,000 bottles of birch sap and 1,000 of maple sap were prepared. It could be more, Gribin is sure, but for now he is trying to increase volumes gradually so that the product does not lose quality. “We plan to grow two to three times every year. I believe that this is real,” says the entrepreneur. But the next few years will definitely be spent on bringing the production of the product to an ideal state.
Battle of the Juices
Two years ago, Alexey Gribin organized the first birch sap festival, and in the summer of 2016 he gave the name to his farm - “Birch Sap Festival”, where he transferred all production assets. The initiative was supported by the governor of the Leningrad region and the head of the administration of the Vsevolozhsk region. Now, together with the district, the entrepreneur is organizing not only this festival, but also an event in Pereslavl-Zalessky. The purpose of such activities is to popularize birch sap and its derivative products among the population.
“It’s difficult to say whether the festival contributes to sales,” says Gribin. - Probably, to some extent it contributes, like any mass event. But the main task is to ensure that the birch sap festival is associated with Russian traditions.” This year, as part of the festival, a world battle of birch syrups took place. People from different countries, including America and Canada, sent birch syrups to the event. Gribin hopes that next year the battle will be even more interesting and that the competition he organizes for the best birch syrups will become the most significant event in the world among product manufacturers.
International interest
Birch sap is one of the few plant products extracted directly from trees that, with the right marketing and promotion strategy, could become a $2 billion business by 2025, says Juliana Mellenthin, director of New Nutrition Business.
In Europe, birch sap is positioned as a good product for detoxifying the body. And given how popular yoga is now becoming in the world, there is a trend to promote all kinds of woody waters and drinks.
Many manufacturers are represented on the Belarusian market. And some of them are quite successful. “There is a Belarusian product that is even exported to the States,” says Gribin. - But in general, Belarusians supply juices to Russia, although there is still not the product that one would like to see on store shelves - with sugar and citric acid. It is produced mainly by old factories with a Soviet past, which do not have the opportunity to rebuild production.”
Now Gribin’s product under the brands “7 Birches” and “6 Maples” is sold at farmers markets and online. But this year the entrepreneur plans to receive certificates for a new batch of juice, which will allow the product to be sold in stores and pharmacies. And he plans to enter foreign markets. “The trend of import substitution for me now is the maple syrup that we make,” says the entrepreneur. “So now the challenge is to find a good area of forest with a lot of maples.”
In many ways, the growing popularity of the brands of the entrepreneur from St. Petersburg today is facilitated by the great media interest in his business. Various publications endlessly write about Alexey Gribin’s production, and television crews make reports. Indeed, against the backdrop of success stories in the field of IT, food startups and other conventional businesses, this production story stands out especially.
In general, the birch tree is considered a symbol of Rus', because this plant, known to every resident of Russia, is widespread from the forest-steppe zone in the south of the country to the forest-tundra in the north and from the Atlantic seas to the Pacific Ocean. Who among us has not tried birch sap? It seems there are no such people. But this is not entirely true. If in Soviet times many forestry enterprises collected birch sap, then in our time such procurement has practically been reduced to zero. But birch sap perfectly cleanses the blood and liver; The condition of patients with rheumatism and arthritis improves when taking it. Even for the prevention of cancer, birch sap and chaga infusion are used. Doctors, in addition, often recommend that patients undergo a course of birch sap therapy during the postoperative period. Birch sap has also proven itself excellent as a means of helping to remove heavy metals from the body.
Thus, the idea does not even come down to something new, but simply to the restoration of a long-known topic - the collection of birch sap. And this business can be developed under different starting conditions. Of course, the optimal option would be to establish contacts with enterprises and entrepreneurs involved in logging, farming, hunters, etc. Moreover, it is also desirable to have off-road vehicles. With such organization and material support, it is possible to significantly increase the harvesting season, moving from south to north. Instead of 2-4 weeks, you can increase this period to 2–2.5 months. Naturally, having only a backpack and containers, it is impossible to ensure such a scope. But even in this case, you can make good money on birch sap, because the average daily yield of sap from one tree is from 5 to 10 liters. And you yourself know very well the prices for natural juices. The largest volumes of juice can be collected in places where deforestation is planned.
It is advisable to agree in advance on the sale of juice during the period of its preparation. Sales can be carried out through a retail network and through a system of cafes, restaurants, etc. Particular attention should be paid to the storage and processing of juice. At temperatures up to 5 degrees Celsius, the juice is stored for 3-5 days. If you need to store it longer, you can freeze it. Freezing ensures storage for up to 2-3 months. This juice can then be processed into kvass and wine, both regular and sparkling, which is sometimes called “champagne.”
Considering all of the above, one can only wonder why “champagne” made from Swedish birch sap began to be quoted on the international market. Is the money received for this wonderful product unnecessary for us? Look at its price. A bottle of 0.75 liters costs 327 Swedish kronor, which translates to approximately (depending on the exchange rate) 1,300 rubles. Moreover, here we are talking about the sale of only one final product. But in Russian sources there are many recipes for making both champagne and simple wine from birch sap. And this is not counting kvass. The appearance of these recipes cannot be considered a random occurrence. The fact is that the preparation of this juice takes a very short time. And, as already noted, birch sap contains a large amount of vitamins and minerals necessary for our body. Therefore, in order to be able to consume the juice for a longer period of time, it should be processed (we have already touched on the topic of storing juice). But everyone knows that any preservatives destroy a significant part of the vitamins. Therefore, it is not surprising that people have long had ways to preserve this natural source of health. Fully processed juice can be stored for more than one year, which ensures year-round sales of products.
Particularly noteworthy are the factors that negatively affect this business. Although these are self-evident, it should be noted that juice should be collected in environmentally friendly places. There are such places even near large cities. The only thing you need to pay attention to is that the harvesting site should be located upstream from the city. Rivers also control the direction of movement of groundwater. Therefore, this criterion is sufficient to eliminate the possibility of entering the city waste collection zone. It is also necessary to avoid harvesting in places where chemical, oil-producing and oil-refining industries operate. And, of course, harvesting juice near highways and railroads is also not recommended. But in such places, plants are most often oppressed. As we can see, it is quite simple to determine the places where birch sap is collected. Storage and processing technologies are well described on the Internet, so I do not dwell on the details in more detail. We have enough natural resources to not worry about various crises; we just need to intelligently approach what we have.
Foreigners are wary of Russian products. They don’t eat buckwheat, they don’t understand herring under a fur coat, they don’t even try to cook borscht. Yes, at one time the world enthusiastically accepted vodka, but that was already in the 16th century! Since then, there have probably been no examples of such successful expansion of Russian food and drinks. How did immigrants from Eastern Europe manage to teach modern London to drink fermented baked milk, buy Borodino bread and order birch sap on the Internet? ZIMA spoke with three entrepreneurs about how to enter the English market with a Russian product.
What to sell
If you ask Russian entrepreneurs who moved to the UK what prompted them to start producing Russian food here, many will answer: they missed the taste they knew from childhood, but they couldn’t find an analogue. This is how, in particular, the production of fermented baked milk appeared in England - the company was the first to launch it Bio-tiful Dairy. Its head, Natasha Bowes, had 15 years of experience working for KPMG and Barclays in Moscow, Dublin and London and had been drinking kefir since childhood. Having moved to England, she could only find Polish kefir here, which did not suit her taste at all. After drawing up a business plan and doing research, Bowes realized there was little competition in the UK dairy market.
The first clients of Bio-tiful Dairy were Russian-speaking visitors to Harrods and the Whole Foods chain. This was inevitable, although from the very beginning the product was not positioned as “Russian”, so as not to limit the scale of the business. However, in 2014 Bio-tiful Dairy signed a deal with Ocado and Riverford Organic, which Ms Bowes said marked the end of the pilot phase of the project and the start of the “real work”. Since then, Russian-speaking buyers have been in the minority. Today Bio-tiful kefir is available in Sainsbury's, Co-op and Whole Foods chain stores.
Bowes believes that when positioning a product, it is important to rely on its fundamental qualities, and not on its Russian roots. In the case of fermented baked milk and kefir, three factors turned out to be fundamental: health benefits, pleasant taste and convenient packaging. “Now the main trends around the world are health and convenience. The demand for organic products in light and convenient packaging is growing very quickly. At the same time, it is obvious that no matter how healthy and beautifully packaged a product is, it will not be successful if it is not tasty,” Bowes is convinced. Can not argue.
Anna Skopets, who founded the company, laid a similar foundation for her product. TreeVitalize, which releases birch sap. The drink turned out to be so unusual and incomprehensible to the British that it took a lot of effort before consumers, retailers and distributors understood what they were being offered. To achieve this, TreeVitalise organized free tastings in stores and at exhibitions, carefully thought out packaging and built a pricing policy, understanding that there would be no quick return on investment.
“In England there is no very concept of “forest products,” says Skopets. - To convince people to try our juice, we had to give an analogy with maple syrup, which is essentially the same tree sap, only concentrated. Containing only 10 calories per bottle and a ton of beneficial microelements, birch sap is a good replacement for sugar-saturated juices and coconut water. It perfectly quenches thirst, has an anti-inflammatory effect on the body, flushes out toxins, and stimulates the liver and kidneys. And at the same time it has a light and fresh taste.” Today, two years after TreeVitalise launched its business, the company's products can be found in TK Maxx, Selfridges, HomeSense and Holland & Barrett stores in the UK and Ireland.
How to set up production
Birch sap for TreeVitalise is collected and bottled in the Carpathian region. The need for imports is explained by the fact that early spring in Eastern Europe is more stormy. The ground, oversaturated with melt water, feeds the birch trees, and each tree produces about five liters of sap per day, whereas in England, where the climate is milder, it would take several days to collect the same volume, and it would be difficult to keep the sap fresh - it starts very quickly to roam. In addition, it turns out that only a certain type of tree is suitable for the production of good birch sap - silver birch, the most common in Russia, the Carpathian region, the Baltic states and the Scandinavian countries. After collection, the juice is packaged in glass containers - plastic is not suitable, bacteria multiply faster in it. “This almost became a problem when working with British distributors, who prefer plastic for safety reasons,” says Anna Skopets. “We had to convince and persuade.”
Bio-tiful Dairy sources its starter from Russia and produces kefir and fermented baked milk from British milk on a farm in West Sussex. Any food production is associated with marketing risks due to the short shelf life of the product: it is necessary that along the entire chain from the source of raw materials to the store everything is in order with refrigerators, so the process of logistics and distribution is expensive and difficult.
“Working with distributors turned out to be difficult, since in England they do not deal with sales - only with logistics. They have many products in the catalog, and they first need to sell the idea to distributors, then sell the product to each store separately, then convince the consumer to buy the product. Often the latter is the easiest to convince,” admits Anna Skopets.
The UK food industry has a well-established startup support system, which allows you not only to find investors, but also to receive valuable advice on scaling and promoting your business.
Nadezhda Genchas, founder of the Karaway bakery, whose clients include Harrods, Selfridges, Whole Foods, prestigious restaurants The Delaunay, Fischer’s, Le Gavroche, as well as the London office of Gazprom, agrees with this. Having set a modest goal for her business 12 years ago to feed people from the CIS with delicious rye bread, today Genchas has won recognition not only from the general public, but also from experts: her products have been awarded the stars of the national Great Taste Awards competition, and her Lithuanian Scalded Rye bread with cumin , which is baked on dried reed leaves, has been named one of the UK's 50 best foods. “Chefs and buyers are very conservative and are afraid to change something, we have to break the ice,” Genchas shares. - It’s much easier with the end user. Customers instantly evaluate the product based on taste and quality and immediately decide whether to buy it or not. And retailers want it to be cheaper, simpler and without unnecessary problems. That’s why our store at Westfield Stratford will reopen in August after a break, stocking all our products – not just bread, but also buns, biscuits and cakes.”
Karaway produces natural rye bread in London. It is made by hand using our grandfather's starters through natural fermentation, the dough matures for several days and is baked for more than an hour, unlike ordinary bread, which is baked in the store in 20 minutes from quick mixes. This is reflected in the price: Karaway bread is several times more expensive than store-bought loaves. But, according to Genchas, there is a stable demand for the products: “There are only 10-15 artisan bakeries in London. And the majority produce mainly wheat bread; their rye bread is very expensive, and the choice is small. For them, rye bread is an additional assortment, for us, on the contrary, it is the main one.”
Where to get money
The production and sale of Russian food in England does not bring quick returns. So, in addition to solving other problems, entrepreneurs have to look for an answer to the question of where to get money from.
For the first three and a half years, Natasha Bose financed Bio-tiful Dairy from her own funds (she did not disclose the amount spent). Last year, Natasha took part in the cult program about business and startups Dragons’ Den, which has been airing on BBC Two for many years. There she received an offer from British businessmen to sell 45% of the company for£ 250 thousand, but, to the great surprise of both the “dragons” and the spectators, she refused. But within six months, she attracted investments into the company on the terms that she considered correct for herself.
Anna Skopets also started a business on her own, then attracted multi-stage investments. To find investors, she advises actively making contacts in your field of business, going to consulting forums and meetings with famous entrepreneurs. The UK food industry has a well-established startup support system, which allows you not only to find investors, but also to receive valuable advice on scaling and promoting your business. In particular, for those who, like her, intend to turn food into a business, Skopets advises paying attention to startup accelerators Cinnamon Bridge and Bread and Butter.
How to get to the shops
This is perhaps the main question. “You can promote your product in the media as much as you want, but if people can’t find it on the shelf of the nearest store, then it’s all in vain,” says Natasha Bowes.
She admits that at the beginning of her journey she had no idea how competitive the UK food industry would be. At the initial stage, it is quite possible to achieve success. The difficulties begin further when you need to get on the shelves of chain stores and somehow stand out from the huge variety of products that appear on the market every day: “This is an industry where 97% of the market is concentrated in the hands of four or five large chains, and it is almost impossible to get there. People say that Waitrose buyers receive 500 new offers a day via email. Huge flow. And the buyers who make decisions about your product niche in these stores are very conservative.”
There is no clear answer to the question of what exactly needs to be done to be guaranteed to get into large supermarkets. “We ourselves don’t know what worked, which of our team’s tireless efforts led to Bio-tiful Dairy kefir and fermented baked milk, in particular, ending up on the shelves at Sainsbury’s. We were talking to one part of the industry, and the offer to supply the product came from another. Yes, they communicated with each other, but this clearly did not happen directly,” says Bowes and adds: “One thing is for sure: in our industry it is very important to be able to build business relationships with people at every level, from employees and clients to suppliers and regulators.” . In England it is impossible not to be a pleasant person to talk to. So, if we learn to add English politeness and courtesy to our natural qualities, this combination can create a very winning combination.”
Birch juice loved by many residents of our country. It is very useful for the body, as it contains the substances it needs, and even in a balanced amount. By drinking birch sap you can easily improve your health and, most importantly, satisfy your need for vitamins.
It seems that every resident of Russia has tried birch sap. Previously, back in Soviet times, it was produced by forestry enterprises. Nowadays, it’s rare to find a company producing birch sap. It is much more profitable to produce sparkling water or alcohol.
But Birch juice It perfectly cleanses the blood, it is drunk to prevent oncology, in the postoperative period, it improves the condition of patients with arthritis and rheumatism, and also removes heavy metals from the body.
That's why birch sap preparation and its further sale is a great way to make money, especially if you revive in people’s memory knowledge about its benefits and positive qualities.
The best option for a novice entrepreneur is to establish contacts with enterprises involved in logging, hunters, farms, and so on.
You will also need to purchase vehicles with high off-road capabilities. Even if you just collect the juice yourself, you can earn decent money - from one tree per day you can get up to 10 liters. And if you go big and create an entire enterprise for the procurement and sale of birch sap, then the income will be very, very high. Prices for natural juices are high now, so the idea is promising.
In advance, you must find ways to market your products. You can sell juice through retail chains, restaurants, cafes, and so on.
You should pay maximum attention to the process of processing and storing the finished juice. After all, even if it is stored at a temperature below 5 degrees Celsius, the shelf life is no more than 5 days.
Therefore, if you want to preserve it for a longer period of time, you need to freeze it. This way you can win up to three more months. After this, the juice is often processed into wine or kvass. Thus, you can sell your finished products all year round.
Pay attention to the place birch sap preparations. After all, factors such as the location of large factories, highways, and railways nearby can negatively affect the quality of products.
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