Milk germinates in coffee – Newspaper Kommersant No. 233 (7434) of 12/15/2022
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The decline in sales of plant-based milk analogues is forcing their producers to look for new distribution channels. Thus, Artur Sirakanyan, CEO of Velle, in partnership with restaurateur Vladislav Romanovsky, can open a network of Velle Coffee coffee houses. Experts are wary of opening coffee shops due to high competition. In addition, the format may not be suitable for the regions: the potential audience of an institution where coffee is prepared only with vegetable analogues of milk is only in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Artur Sirakanyan, general director of the manufacturer of herbal products under the Velle brand, and restaurateur Vladislav Romanovsky established Coffee Drinks LLC, follows from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. In November, Coffee Drinks filed an application with Rospatent for the registration of the Velle Coffee trademark. The company was probably created to develop a network of coffee houses as a new sales channel for Velle products, says the interlocutor of Kommersant in the catering market. Velle did not provide a comment. Lord Sirakanyan and Romanovsky did not answer Kommersant’s questions.
Vladislav Romanovsky previously participated in one of the restaurant projects of Emin Agalarov, co-owner of Crocus Group. He also, according to Kartoteka.ruis the founder of Restpro LLC.
Velle was founded in 2004 by Sergey Vykhodtsev, creator of the Invite powder drinks and Bystrov cereal brands. Production is located near St. Petersburg. In March 2020, Velle came under the control of the Cypriot Onyx Stone Holdings Ltd., among the owners of which was Artur Sirakanyan. Now the company is focused on the production of plant-based dairy substitutes, including drinks made from oats, almonds, and coconut. Under the Velle brand, in particular, five types of herbal drinks are produced.
The market for plant-based milk analogues has experienced a decline in consumer demand this year. Its sales in January-November, according to NielsenIQ estimates, decreased by 3.2% year-on-year in volume terms and by 1% in monetary terms. At the end of 2021, sales of vegetable drinks, on the contrary, grew by 19.6% in physical terms and by 17% in money terms. According to Artem Ponomarev, co-owner of Greenwise, the current correction is associated with the withdrawal of popular foreign names from the market and a reduction in their supply. Thus, Danone announced in April that it had stopped importing Alpro vegetable drinks to Russia, although their production continued inside the country. The expert considers the violation of supply chains and the increase in the cost of packaging to be additional factors.
Mr. Ponomarev does not rule out that new coffee houses will be in demand on the market: “Velle was one of the first to develop the category of herbal drinks, focusing on a wide range of consumers.” The founder of One Group (one Price Coffee and Coffee In coffee chains) Sergey Rumyantsev suggests that it is the desire to popularize the brand that may be the main motivation for launching Velle Coffee. Additional income from the sale of drinks in coffee shops will be in second place, he believes. The expert assumes that establishments will operate in the upper range of the middle price segment, since Velle drinks are more expensive than some Russian competitors.
It is the potentially high cost of production, according to Mr. Rumyantsev, that may be the weak point of the concept. “High-end stores have fewer receipts and lower gross margins, and consumers are starting to get used to the fact that good coffee can be found in inexpensive establishments,” he notes. Although Franshiza.ru expert Anna Rozhdestvenskaya says that investor interest in opening coffee houses is now generally limited: this market segment has become very competitive, and the format of establishments with a menu only with vegetable milk substitutes is rather narrow. In her opinion, there are potential buyers only in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and interest in the regions is limited. “At the same time, coffee with alternative milk can be bought at any ordinary coffee shop,” she points out.
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