Mikhail Lazarev, co-owner of Volkhov, a biscuit and gingerbread company, talks about his participation in the Favorite Food & Drinks tasting competition.
How did you decide to take part in the Favorite Food & Drinks competition?
"For a long time, Volkhov was a regional player - our customers were mainly concentrated in the eastern part of Ukraine. When the full-scale invasion began, part of the market disappeared and purchasing power decreased. We had to quickly reassemble ourselves.
We developed a rapid change strategy: what we needed to do to ramp up production. We realised that we wanted to go into retail, and to do this, we needed to develop brand awareness and our products. That is why we decided to take part in several open events.
We were very impressed with the Favourite Food & Drinks competition. We wanted to meet and introduce our product to the jury, which included retail representatives, and get objective feedback from unbiased professionals about our products after a blind tasting. In addition, the live communication during the event, when we stood at the stand and treated guests to our product, was very valuable - it was interesting and inspiring.
How did you prepare for the tasting competition?? How many products were served and whether there was an additional stage of preparation?
We served five products: three from the main range and two new ones - honey gingerbread and Tsybulinka, our first salted biscuits. Unfortunately, they never became systemic.
We wanted to test the new products to see how much consumers like them, collect feedback and use the competition as a focus group to understand whether to launch them or not.
Another product was our classic Kharkiv Biscuits, and we received a lot of positive feedback from the tasting committee and retailers.
It was also interesting to hear from Lviv residents: "What is this? Why do you call it a cookie? It's a cake". For us, it was an insight and an impetus to talk more about this product. For the people of our region, it's a familiar story, but others have never seen or tasted it.
Did you take further steps after this feedbackWhat are the overall results of the competition, apart from the awards??
Thanks to this competition, we started working with Varus: it was there that we met brand manager Natalia Krasnoshchek, who introduced us to Maxim Nedoluga, the category manager. In September, it will be a year since we have been shipping Kharkivske and other products to them. Interestingly, they were the first to whom we supplied Kharkivske not in branded packaging, but in family packs of 480 grams. This is probably the most striking and concrete result.
But I believe that cooperation requires many touches. We meet at various events and keep in touch all the time. And negotiations can last for six months or a year, so you shouldn't give up.
Do you communicate with your customers about the tasting competition?? To what extent do Ukrainian consumers pay attention to packaging labels??
Unfortunately, we are not communicating yet. But we are currently working on extending the shelf life of our products and changing the packaging - both materials and design. All the awards will be there as an additional argument in our favour.
In general, we have not researched this issue, but my subjective opinion is that consumers do not pay much attention to it. In B2B, on the contrary, everyone knows Favorite Food & Drinks - both retailers and manufacturers. It works really well.
How do you evaluate a product during in-house development?Do you consult third-party experts or consumers??
We look at the product from three angles. The first is live feedback from consumers. For example, we launched a survey on Instagram for the first ten people to test the new product. We sent them the packaging and asked them to rate the taste, aroma, appearance, and packaging. This gives a very specific picture, without further ado.
The second is tastings at events. Recently, we organised a campaign with the new Kharkivske with marmalade - we held a holiday for children, where we gave away gifts for completing a survey. In 40 minutes, we collected 100 detailed questionnaires. It was a great live communication and just a pleasant, warm experience.
The third is the internal board. We hold joint tastings with top managers, discuss, and try. This is, of course, subjective, but it allows us to align tastes. I dream that we will have an internal culture of tastings - with notes, scales, and timing. I want us to become not just producers, but real 'biscuit sommeliers'.
Tasting results of Volkhov, LLC products in the catalogue Favorite Food & Drinks 2024 spring
The interview was conducted by Daria Spasova
Photo: from the archive of Volkhov, LLC