The Pyaterochka and Perekrestok chains now offer “Hey, Boy” chips with the actors of the series “The Boy’s Word”

After retailers stopped working with Easy Peasy products from blogger and TV presenter Anastasia Ivleeva due to the high-profile “naked party,” her business partners – former managers of Danone and Dixie – switched to other media personalities. As Kommersant found out, they began producing chips with the actors of the series “The Boy’s Word”, and are also preparing joint projects with blogger Ian Topless and producer Yana Rudkovskaya. Famous people have begun to release products under their own brands more often, but few, according to experts, manage to stay on the market for a long time.

As Kommersant discovered, the Pyaterochka and Perekrestok chains (part of the X5 Group) now have chips “Hey, kid” with the actors of the series “The Boy’s Word” Leon Kemstach and Ruzil Minekaev. The production of products is carried out by LLC “Eu, Patsan”, where 16.5% each belongs to Ruzil Minekaev, Leon Kemstach’s mother Laura Kemstach and Vladimir Kotenko. Another 25.25% each belongs to Alexey Klochkov, who at various times held managerial positions at Pyaterochka and Dixy, and to Vitalius Paulus, who headed Bacardi Rus in 2013–2014 and later worked as vice president of marketing. Danone in Russia. Kommersant was unable to contact them.

Messrs. Klochkov and Paulus started a business in 2021 with blogger and TV presenter Anastasia Ivleeva, creating Bee’s Knees LLC, which produced Easy Peasy chips and energy drinks. In 2023, “The Bee’s Knees” earned 2.8 billion rubles, according to SPARK Interfax data. X5 Group and Magnit (which includes Dixy) told Kommersant that they no longer work with Easy Peasy. X5 cited a “low sales rating.” At the end of 2023, after a “naked party” at the Moscow club Mutabor, a number of TV channels, advertising agencies and companies suspended cooperation with Anastasia Ivleeva. Its representative Vasily Yashchuk did not answer Kommersant.

“Hey, kid” chips are produced at the same enterprises as Easy Peasy, for example at the Moscow Potato factory (they declined to comment). While it is planned to produce only chips under the brand, their sales will begin at the end of 2023, representative Ruzil Minekaev told Kommersant. Vitalius Paulus and Alexey Klochkov may also launch a project with blogger Jan Toples. In March 2024, Friend Fifi LLC was created, where Messrs. Paulus and Klochkov each owned 27.5%, Yan Lapotkov (the blogger’s real name) owned 28%, and his wife Ekaterina Lapotkova owned 17%. The company specializes in the production of crackers and cookies. The blogger’s representative declined to comment.

Perekrestok is seeing an increase in proposals for collaborations with bloggers and actors in the chips and snacks category. They explain that the audience of these products is the younger generation of active users of social networks. Magnit says that the key “star project for the network” is still the partnership with blogger Vlad Bumaga, who also produces chips and drinks under the A4 brand.

But it’s not just about food. Producer Yana Rudkovskaya, together with Messrs. Klochkov, Paulus and Kotenko, founded Beauty in Details LLC in the fall of 2023 to produce skincare cosmetics under the Code de Beaute brand. The launch is scheduled for approximately August-September 2024, said a representative of Ms. Rudkovskaya, adding that the project is fully funded by her business partners. At the CEO Summit on April 2 of this year, Rive Gauche President Edgar Shabanov said that an agreement had been reached with Yana Rudkovskaya on exclusive production for the network.

Attempts by public opinion leaders to create products under their own name have been known since the 1990s (chips and clothes from Alla Pugacheva, vodka from Vladimir Vinokur). All these projects were eventually scrapped, says Brand Building Group CEO Alexander Afinogenov.

Now that many international companies have stopped promoting on the Russian market, the trend of launching new brands has intensified, notes Alexey Popovichev, executive director of Rusbrand. According to him, the use of influencers does not require large investments and helps the product “promote itself at the start of sales.”

According to Mr. Afinogenov, the main risk is the emergence of a scandalous story in which a famous person could be drawn into. Such a character, according to Stanislav Kaufman, owner of the Kaufman brand agency, should be associated with the product itself, which is often not taken into account.

Polina Gritsenko