“Emelya” sits on the shelves – Newspaper Kommersant No. 180 (7381) of 09/29/2022

The Emelya brand, which until 2011 was one of the top three in sales, may return to the Russian market of crackers. The rights to the brand can be acquired by the co-owner of the Fishka croutons manufacturer. Sales of crackers are growing rapidly, but launching Emelya on the shelves will require investments comparable to launching a brand from scratch.

The co-owner of PK Fortuna, which produces crackers and toasts under the Fishka brand in Kostroma, Mikhail Lazarev won the auction for the sale of the Emelya brand and related trademarks, found “Kommersant” in the register of bankruptcy information. The second bidder was Mr. Lazarev’s partner Pavel Rymbu. The winner offered 5.35 million rubles for the brands. at an initial price of 3.24 million rubles. PC Fortuna stated that they considered the comments to be premature, since the sale and purchase agreement had not been concluded.

Croutons under the Emelya brand were previously produced by K.P.F Consensus LLC in Moscow. The company was once the third player in the Russian market with a share of about 5-7%, according to distributors. But, probably, it could not stand the competition with the Tomsk group KDV Denis Shtengelov, which in 2008 bought out the manufacturer of crackers “Three Korochki”, and a year later – the owner of the brands “Kirieshki” and “Kompashki”, told earlier interlocutors “Kommersant”. In 2011, K.P.F. Consensus began bankruptcy proceedings. As follows from the data of Rospatent, in that year the rights to the Emelya brand were transferred to the Moscow Region LLC, and in 2013 to Emelya LLC. This structure was also declared bankrupt in 2017.

The category of crackers is now actively growing. According to NielsenIQ, sales of the product in retail chains in January-July increased by 13.3% in physical terms and by 35.1% in money year-on-year. For comparison: sales of all snacks, including chips, nuts, etc., over the same period decreased by 1.7% in volume and increased by 18.2% in money terms.

According to Kommersant’s source on the market, more than 50% of the croutons market is accounted for by several large manufacturers. The leading positions in the category are occupied by HrusTeam (owned by PepsiCo), Kirieshki and Chip, indicate in NielsenIQ. The remaining 50% of the market is represented by many local manufacturers and private labels (STM) networks, adds the interlocutor of Kommersant. According to him, this year Fortuna was the most active in the market in terms of distribution development, launch of new products and advertising.

Alexey Popovichev, Executive Director of Rusbrand, notes that when marketing communication is stopped, consumers can quickly forget well-known brands, and in the snack category, rotation occurs relatively often. In the case of Emelya, the new owner will most likely have to invest again in promoting the product, albeit not from scratch, he notes. On the other hand, the expert adds, the moment to bring the brand to the market may be appropriate, given that international players have sharply reduced investment in marketing and advertising. Stanislav Kaufman, the owner of the Kaufman brand agency, agrees that Yemelya will need a new promotion. But this is not bad, since the buyer has changed since the brand left the market, the expert points out.

Competition in the market remains high, including from private labels, the Chernogolovka Group of Companies (produces croutons under the Krutets brand) notes. They clarified that they increased the production of crackers by more than 40% by 2021, and also expand the range due to new flavors and types of products. In addition, the activity of the Vorontsovskie croutons brand may increase. As Kommersant wrote, the production of the product goes to new structurethe beneficiary may be the former deputy chairman of the Crimean government and former top manager of the gas industry Boris Zimin.

Anatoly Kostyrev