How Russian companies use Andersen’s works in their names

For the 180th anniversary of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Ugly Duckling,” Kommersant decided to explore how strongly the images created by the Danish writer have entered our lives. As a manifestation of the universal recognition of his heroes, we chose to use them as brands by Russian companies.

The study was conducted on 134 works by Hans Christian Andersen with unique titles: “Ole-Lukoje”, “Wild Swans”, “Thumbelina”, “The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep”, “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”, etc.

An analysis of the SPARK-Interfax database showed that since 1991, the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen have given names 766 Russian institutions of all forms of ownership. Less than half (329) of them are currently operating.

Commercial are 79 of them. The rest are non-profit organizations, schools and kindergartens in regional or municipal ownership. Most often they use the name “Thumbelina”.

From currently working name “Ugly duck” Only one company carries it. This LLC was registered less than a month ago (October 19, 2023) in the village of Zapadnaya Litsa, Leningrad Region, for “retail trade in personal hygiene items.”

The Ugly Duckling LLC, created in 1995 in Petrozavodsk, existed for eight years and was liquidated by court decision. The database does not contain information about his field of activity. An Internet trading company with the same name from Tyumen has been in the process of liquidation since June.

Entrepreneurs in Russia are most inspired by “The Snow Queen” and “Flint”». The former often trade in furs, ice cream and frozen fish. The latter sell tobacco and timber, process honey, make stoves and install heating systems.

Now there is at least one company with a “fairytale” name from Andersen there are in 35 out of 89 regions of Russia. Most often they work in Moscow and the Sverdlovsk region, where they add “Mermaid”.

As a rule, “fairytale” enterprises are engaged in wholesale and retail trade, and the hotel business. For example, some “Little Mermaids” sell semi-finished products from algae and rent boats, one of the “Thumbelina” sells alcoholic drinks, and “Princess and the Pea” – mattresses and, unexpectedly, ham.

The average age of companies with “fairytale” names is 14 years old. Of the operating companies, the oldest were the Ognivo farm from the village of Verkh-Chik in the Novosibirsk region and the Moscow hairdresser Rusalochka on Guryanova Street. They are open in March and June 1992 respectively.

Over the past year, five commercial enterprises with Andersen names have been registered – the same seller of personal hygiene items “Ugly Duckling” in the Leningrad region, the sports club “Rusalochka” in Chelyabinsk, the “Rusalochka” hotel in Saratov, the electrical installation company “Ognivo” in Nizhny Novgorod and a metal seller with the same name in Moscow.

Only half of private enterprises (38 out of 79 companies) publish headcount reports. More than ten people are registered only in the Voronezh hotel “Bronze Boar”». An ice cream seller from Vladikavkaz, “Snow Queen,” and a real estate company from Krasnogorsk also had a staff of over ten people. “Ole-Lukoje”. But recently they changed their names to “Snowball” and “Eridan”.

The economic effect of companies using “fairytale” names is difficult to assess; most of them are small non-public enterprises and do not disclose their reports. Of the 38 private companies reporting for 2022, 9 suffer losses. The most profitable company was from the structure of the clothing retailer “Snow Queen”: before taxes RUB 3.3 billion

The country also operates three companies named after the storyteller himself. LLC with the name “Andersen” is a hotel in Saratov, a forging workshop in Krasnogorsk and a company engaged in “professional, scientific and technical activities” in Rostov-on-Don. And the well-known chain of children’s cafes “Anderson” was not included in the list because it is spelled with an “o”.

Russian entrepreneurs exploit not only Andersen’s fairy tales. Many people prefer domestic stories, such as “Sadko” And “Teremok”.

Sometimes it’s not just the names that are “fabulous,” but the entrepreneurs themselves. In St. Petersburg closed in 2006 The Air trading company was owned by Hans Christian Andersen, in the past – Boris Lukyanov. In September 2021, the media also reported about his personal bankruptcy and the visit of a financial manager to an empty house in the village. The owner was not there.