How to make money on bread and butter. How can a worker, a peasant and an intellectual make money for bread and butter? The philosophy of life of the representatives of the three classes Just to earn a living

07.04.2022

Bread is an everyday commodity, and delicious bread is also a great pleasure.
To organize a business for baking homemade bread, you will need knowledge and skills in the proper preparation of bread, as well as premises, equipment, consumables and raw materials.

If we talk about the premises, then we can assume that it is unlikely that in an ordinary apartment you will be able to create a bread baking workshop. So this business idea is suitable for residents of rural areas, preferably those living in the vicinity of the city. The price of bread, among other things, is formed from the cost of delivery, therefore, in order for the price to be attractive to the consumer, accommodation is required not far from the city.

On the territory of your private house, you can easily place a small workshop for baking homemade bread. From the equipment you will need a bread machine, refrigeration equipment for storing dough, as well as a kitchen workplace with the necessary utensils.
Consumables include firewood, if your bread machine is wood-burning, not electric. If your bread will have packaging, then these are packaging materials. Also here you can include baking sheets, mixers and other small things.

The raw materials for baking homemade bread include components for production, these are flour, yeast, milk, butter, water, salt, sugar, flavorings, etc.

Hardworking can be distinguished from personal qualities, this is probably the main thing that is important for you to have, because only a hardworking person can get up, as they say: “not light is not dawn”, in order to bake bread.

There is a small paradox in this business: “You can have nothing, but at the same time be head and shoulders above your competitors.” How so? It’s very simple in baking bread, you may not have either expensive equipment or a comfortable room, the main thing is the final product, if you bake delicious bread, then a kilometer-long queue can line up for you. And just the opposite, you can invest a lot of money in this competitive production and never see a profit. Therefore, to start your business of baking delicious homemade bread, you should learn how to cook that very delicious bread.

The baking of bread and the proper conduct of the bread business should be learned from the French, they became famous all over the world once they cooked a delicious “baguette” and to this day many knowledgeable tourists line up early in the morning to try the famous French baguette.

In France, there lives one fairly young, black-skinned man, who, according to him, is a hereditary baker, so this man cooks the most delicious baguette known throughout Europe and people line up in his shop since the night. In the meantime, at about 24.00, he kneads the dough, goes to bed, gets up at 4.00 (industriousness), while looking with one “peephole” at the street where the line to his bakery is already beginning to gather, and then joyfully goes to bake his famous baguette. At the same time, the main components of his recipe are no different from competitors - this is flour, salt, water. All the secrets lie in the order of mixing the ingredients, in the time of the “fermentation” of the dough and, of course, in the philosophy of the baker himself. This Frenchman believes that his positive mood and love for others play a huge role in the taste of his homemade bread.

“Not everyone has the strength and patience to carry out this mission”: a woman of a rare profession, a bell-ringer, works in Grodno Cathedral

News of Belarus. The total weight of her musical instrument is three tons, and the workplace is at a height of 30 meters. A woman of a rare profession works at the Holy Intercession Cathedral, according to the 24 Hours News program on STV.

Yulia Minchenko was not so long ago the only female professional bell ringer in Belarus. Today she already has followers who fill the sky over Grodno with a rolling bell ringing.

Report by Galina Buro.

10 bells of different sizes and sounds. On the oldest one, possibly a ship one, the date is 1885. And the largest one was cast more than 80 years ago and weighs one and a half tons. This is the Annunciator who first calls parishioners to prayer. Small bells are connected to it - ringing, medium - ringing and basses.

Yulia Minchenko, bell ringer of the Holy Intercession Cathedral:
During Lent, I use larger bells - the ringing turns out to be sadder, more strict like that. On Easter, on big holidays, small bells are connected. The ringing is more joyful, cheerful.

Yulia Minchenko notices: she does not perform melodies, but precisely ringing in the form of beautiful harmonies, she herself composes their variations. Once upon a time in her youth in the Polotsk Spaso-Evfrosinievsky monastery, an excursion to the bell tower struck the girl to the core. A graduate of a music school had a dream - to master an ancient art form.

Yulia Minchenko:
At first it was at such a artisanal level, intuitively, one might say. A little later, professional education appears, namely Zvonar.

Today, Yulia, almost the only one in the country, has a rare official entry in her work book - a bell ringer. A fragile woman has been making this three-ton bell orchestra sound for 15 years. The work is physically hard: both hands and feet are involved, because the tongues of large bells are tied to the pedals.

Galina Buro, correspondent:
The ringer controls the bells with the help of special cables, which are assembled into bundles. To make everything sound here, you need a certain sleight of hand and good coordination - all this needs to be learned. So far, I have succumbed only to such a light chime.

Julia also sings in the church choir, graduated from the Faculty of Arts, and now teaches students how to ring bells. She says not everyone can handle it. It takes deep faith.

Yulia Minchenko:
Not everyone has the strength and patience to carry out this mission. Ringing, in fact, is the prayer of the bell ringer.

By ringing bells to reach the hearts of people, to awaken the city from spiritual sleep, to be the first to announce the good news on a great holiday. She is sure that for this it is worth climbing about a hundred steps of the bell tower several times a day.

"Craft" bread from a small bakery is increasingly chosen by both restaurateurs and retail customers. The most sustainable business model in this market is production, which has both wholesale customers and its own retail

Roman Bunyakov, owner of the Glavkhleb bakery (Photo: Oleg Yakovlev / RBC)

“Small “family” bakeries are, of course, a new Moscow trend,” says restaurant consultant Irina Avrutskaya. “Demand is growing from both consumers and restaurants, who are gradually moving from frozen semi-finished products to “artisan” bread made from quality raw materials from local suppliers.”

The volume of bread production in Russia, according to official figures from Rosstat, exceeds 550 billion rubles. Along with large bakeries that have been operating since Soviet times and specialize in the manufacture of cheap varieties of mass consumption bread (about 70% of the market), small bakeries are appearing throughout the country. They mainly produce expensive bread, dietary products, unusual pastries.

In addition, many retailers like Auchan or Perekrestok have production facilities. “Some of the retail players simply bake products from frozen semi-finished products, but there are also those who are serious about bread, carefully selecting raw materials and working on the recipe,” says Avrutskaya. In her opinion, the fashion for “real” bread originated about ten years ago with the appearance in the capital of the networks “Volkonsky”, “Daily Bread”, etc., but two or three years ago the trend became massive.

“Many bakeries are springing up all over the world, this is a delicious and sweet business idea,” says Anna Shumailova, co-owner of the Bulka bakery. True, it is associated with certain risks: it is difficult to predict the demand for premium bread, and the main margin is received by retail, not production.

daily need

Roman Bunyakov is one of the devotees of "artisan" bread in the capital. Roman took up this business due to a combination of circumstances. Since the mid-2000s, he has been working as a sales director at Technoflot, selling technological equipment for the kitchens of cafes and restaurants. In 2013, Bunyakov's acquaintances Sergei Ilyushin and Maxim Yalynychev bought a bakery in Krasnogorsk and invited Roman to advise on how to organize production.

He went to help start-up entrepreneurs several times, but they were in no hurry to buy new equipment. Instead, the partners offered Bunyakov to invest in their company. Roman's wife Anastasia convinced him to accept Roman's offer. They met in the late 1990s at one of the first European-style bakeries in Russia, Delifrance. Anastasia worked as the manager of the institution, and Roman worked there as a baker.

“There were huge queues at Delfrance. People bought two or three fresh baguettes, despite the fact that they cost many times more than ordinary loaves. We were so nostalgic for those times that we decided, what if this is a chance to repeat that success, ”says Bunyakov. So he became a co-owner of the Varenishnaya bakery. They did not make dumplings there, but rolls with jam and marmalade, baked pies and bread. Finished products were sold to cafes and restaurants, from time to time Bunyakov exported goods to food markets and food festivals.

At one of them, he met Olga Dobychina, who, together with her husband Daniil Nikitin, promoted the Scandinavian brand of tableware. She invited Roman to become a partner in a new project - a bakery on the territory of the Danilovsky market. “Maxim Popov (at that time the manager of the Danilovsky market. — RBC) he offered us unique conditions - 50 thousand rubles. per month for 32 sq. m,” says Bunyakov. “It was one of the first such projects, and the guys' eyes burned. The place I chose for them was not the most accessible, so the price was good. People went through the whole market to buy good bread, and at the same time they bought everything else, ”recalls Maxim Popov. The budget for opening a bakery called "Baton" was only 450 thousand rubles.

Bread at the market

So, in June 2014, Varenishnaya got a good distribution channel - the bakery Baton, co-owned by Bunyakov, Dobychina and Nikitin. "Varenishnaya" baked, we took it all to the market, Olya and Danya made out the layout, and sold it in turn at the counter, ”says Bunyakov. He was amazed by the turnover of the retail business: three months after the opening, daily sales of "Baton" began to exceed 50-60 thousand rubles. On Friday and Saturday, the revenue reached 140-150 thousand rubles. “These are fantastic numbers for a bread shop,” says Roman. The retail margin reached 75%; however, they had to spend money on logistics: the products were delivered by minivan, the rent of which cost 3 thousand rubles. in a day; another 200-300 thousand rubles. per month spent on packaging so that the products do not lose their appearance during transportation.

It soon became clear that the premises in Krasnogorsk were not suitable for large-scale production: the furnaces did not have enough power. Bunyakov found a new premises: in the fall of 2014, it became possible to build a bakery in the administrative building of the Danilovsky market. This would reduce logistics costs.

Roman estimated the initial investment at 13 million rubles, but his partners in both Varenishnaya and Baton were not ready for such investments. As a result, Bunyakov left both projects and decided to go it alone. Olga Dobychina refused to discuss with RBC the reasons and circumstances of parting with Roman Bunyakov.

In 2015, the entrepreneur built the Glavkhleb bakery. In reality, at the start, investments in production amounted to 9 million rubles: 1.5 million were spent on repairs, the rest - on the purchase of equipment. Monthly rent cost 250 thousand rubles. “Since I sell kitchen equipment, I naturally wanted to supply myself with the best that is on the market. Make not just a bakery, but a whole showroom,” says Bunyakov. He still has not quit his hired job at Technoflot and uses his own bakery to demonstrate the capabilities of kitchen equipment to potential customers. Glavkhleb began selling pastries to bakeries, including Baton, farm shops, coffee houses and restaurants.

Often start-up entrepreneurs imagine a “family” bakery as a small production and a shop attached to it. However, in Moscow, according to the entrepreneur, such a business model does not work. “Manufacturing with only one point is a disaster,” says Roman. — On the one hand, the bakery needs capacity reserves to be able to quickly ramp up production. On the other hand, this is a big investment in equipment. One oven alone can cost a million rubles. You need to buy a large-volume refrigerator right away, but at first you only fill it by a third. It makes no sense to keep such a colossus for the sake of even one super-successful point of sale. According to his calculations, the cost of a croissant in production serving one retail outlet will be 45 rubles, and if there are ten outlets, it will already be 19 rubles. In retail, such a croissant can be sold for 100 rubles.

It would seem that bread is a commodity of daily demand, but it is almost impossible to predict sales. According to Ekaterina Volkova, the founder of the KhlebNikoff bakery and confectionery, the bakery and confectionery business is highly seasonal, dependent on the weather, traffic jams and many other factors: sometimes there is an influx of people, and in bad weather most of the products - up to 60% - have to be written off. “Since we are oriented to the level above the average, we simply cannot exhibit yesterday's bread,” says Volkova.

production costs

In April 2016, the Ginza managers undertook the reconstruction of the building of the Danilovsky market, in which the bakery was located, and Glavkhleb was asked to move out. I had to look for a new place. Relocation and renovation of a 400 sq. m at the Semenovskaya metro station cost the entrepreneur 1 million rubles. In addition, it became inconvenient for some small customers to travel to the new address for products, and they changed the supplier. Even the owners of "Baton" refused bread. “They were replaced by larger customers. For example, restaurants in Rappoport,” says Roman. “Of course, they ask for special prices, require that each bun be properly packaged and labeled, but the volumes are large.” One of the clients was the Doubleby chain of coffee houses, where Bunyakov began to supply croissants and bagels with cherries.

For Bunyakov's business, a large number of wholesale customers is critically important: savings are achieved through the volume of purchases of raw materials and the full load of equipment. The more diverse customers, the more stable purchases. Today, the Glavkhleb bakery has more than 300 trading partners who buy thousands of products every day.

Glavkhleb employs 52 people, 15 of which are couriers. Flour is purchased in Perm and Orenburg, but even the most expensive flour on the market does not always meet quality standards. “You buy two bags of 100 kg - good flour. You buy a ton - bad, ”complains Bunyakov. He spends 25-30 thousand rubles on experiments with products. per month. Daily turnover is 125-130 thousand rubles, profit - 12-13% of this amount. The entrepreneur expects to recoup investments in production in four years.

According to Roman, it is easier to make money in the fresh bread market in retail rather than in production. The volume of investments is lower, and they turn around faster, margins are higher. In early 2016, he and his partner Pavel Smirnov opened the culinary "Rogalik" on Nikolskaya Street. Today, about 7% of Glavkhleb's total production goes there, but entrepreneurs plan to open seven more such outlets in Moscow. The most sustainable business model in the fresh bread market is the bakery, which has both wholesale customers and its own retail. Wholesale ensures the loading of production, and retail brings the main margin.

"Healthy" and unnecessary

The founder of the "Little Zhuravlev Bakery" Sergey Zhuravlev also believes that the manufacturing business in the bakery business should be combined with the retail business: his company is simultaneously developing a bakery and a network of bakeries.

Spouses Sergey and Alena Zhuravleva opened the first point on the Rogozhsky market two years ago. They had long dreamed of their own cozy bakery while traveling around European cities, and in December 2015 they decided to make their dream come true. We started with production: we rented a room with an area of about 200 square meters. m not far from the Rogozhsky market, as well as a point of 25 sq. m in the market itself, where they began to sell finished products. All recipes and technologies were brought from travels, from master classes, something was worked out at home, in the family kitchen, a year before the start of production.

The source of investment was the income of another business of the Zhuravlevs - the production of marmalade sweets in jars "Tasty Help". Production costs amounted to more than 6 million rubles. - they went to repair the premises and purchase equipment. The most difficult thing was to find bakers and a technologist. “The market for professional bakers in Moscow is very small, the work is quite hard and not well paid - it is very difficult to find good people,” Sergey complains.

It took about 1.5 million rubles more to set up a point on the Rogozhsky market, then the Zhuravlevs opened four more points. “We have 50% of our products are Russian and Soviet pastries that everyone understands, and the remaining 50% are recipes from different countries,” says Zhuravlev. - Markup at the level of 100%. Now the bakery produces about 1.5-2 thousand units of products per day, which is sold through its own outlets, as well as through partners: small restaurants, bakeries, coffee houses. According to the entrepreneur's calculations, production reached payback after a year of work, retail outlets go into plus faster - somewhere in four months. By the end of the year, Sergey plans to bring the number of establishments under his brand to 15 through the sale of a franchise. “Now there are already several buyers, and we are selecting premises. This is a profitable business,” says Zhuravlev.

However, not everyone succeeds: the meager assortment of the bakery can become a stumbling block. In September 2015, entrepreneur Alexander Skuratovsky “for several million rubles” bought out a loss-making bakery in Solnechnogorsk in the hope of turning it into a profit through retail sales. Skuratovsky organized his Kolhoz sales points: he rented a trading place from the Lavka-Lavka farmer's cooperative in Mega-Khimki and opened a point on the Usachevsky market.

But sales were not going well: people wanted sweet rolls and “confectionery” more, while Skuratovsky offered “healthy” bread, without the use of yeast, only on “live” sourdough, and several types of cookies of his own production. “We had about 12 types of “healthy” bread, but the assortment for retail turned out to be quite modest,” Alexander complains. In parallel, he sold bread in bulk to health food stores; they brought at least some profit, while their points worked in the red.

The cost price of Skuratovsky's bread was 20-30 rubles, and he sold loaves for 130 rubles, but the entire margin was gone after deducting the costs of logistics and rent. In September last year, the entrepreneur abandoned his points, leaving only wholesale, and in the next two months he worked to zero. However, this did not save him from the closure of the enterprise. “I realized that you can leave the bakery as a family hobby, but it’s impossible to make a more or less interesting business in this “boutique” niche with such a small assortment,” says Skuratovsky.

The first bakery "Khlebnichnaya" was opened in January 2016 on the street. Blucher. Today the network consists of 14 outlets that operate in Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk, the company plans to launch a bakery in Perm by the end of January.

good deed

Before, together with a partner, to engage in the development of the network of bakeries "", he supplied equipment to retail chains throughout Russia. However, due to changes in the market, the business had to be abandoned. “The retail market was changing, there were fewer and fewer retailers, local chains were slowly leaving the market,” says Mr. Kazakov. In fact, it remains possible to work with only two well-known networks, and it is almost impossible to make money in such a market.”

As a result, it was decided to leave the equipment trade and choose a new direction. According to Ilya Kazakov, one of the main criteria for the future business was that it should not correspond to the B2B model, but to the B2C model, that is, be consumer-oriented:

“The essence of my past business was that at first the owner bears all the costs, supplies and installs the equipment, and the payment under the contract is transferred to later, this is a normal practice of working with networks.

Making bread is a good thing. This is not trading vodka, not lending money at 1000%. From a moral point of view, this is one of the most pleasant businesses. In addition, almost everyone eats pastries: grandmothers, the middle class, and rich people, which means that the sales market is large. In general, the bread market is now in a very interesting state: we are moving away from centralized bread supplies, as it was in Soviet times, and are coming to a market for the consumption of fresh, hot bread.”

Ilya Kazakov admits that one cannot become rich by selling bread, but this is a business that can slowly make a profit every day, regardless of the weather in the yard and various crises that are so popular with us now.

In fact, it is difficult to make money on buns that cost 20 rubles. At the same time, the feeling that many have now decided to open bakeries does not leave them; this business seems simple and easy to people. But this is not so, I think most of them work to zero.

pure mathematics

When the business was just starting, the founders of the bakery chain proceeded from pure mathematics, they calculated everything. Even now, when opening new outlets, the owners by no means rely on their own feelings, but rely solely on mathematical modeling.

The main mistake of those who open their own bakery is that they often stick to the emotional component. That is, people see that there are bakeries everywhere, they think that flour is cheap, that they will bake a bun and get rich. In fact, everything is not so. This is painstaking work that begins from the moment when you do not have any bakery. Thanks to our mathematical model, we can calculate how much we will sell before we open. At the same time, in about 90% of cases, we are right, - says Mr. Kazakov.

The operational director of the Khlebnichnaya bakery network says that it has become especially popular to open bakeries since about 2014. Today, DoubleGIS gives 441 organizations upon request. In the first place is the federal network from Izhevsk "Khlebnitsa", which has 16 outlets in Yekaterinburg, in the second place - "Khlebnichnaya" with 14 bakeries, closes the top three "European Bakery", which has eight branches in the city.

There is competition in our market, as elsewhere. Now there really is a certain fashion for bakeries, plus people have a need to buy not only traditional bread, which is on the shelves in supermarkets, but also fresh pastries. There are large network players on the Yekaterinburg market, they are actively launching franchise bakeries. Do not forget that some supermarkets also sell fresh pastries, although some of them use semi-finished products.

The business model, when the bakery works on semi-finished products, requires less costs, in this case, less equipment needs to be purchased. According to such a system, "" works. Vladimir Nasretdinov told DK.RU that the supply of frozen pastries. Ilya Kazakov believes that now it is more difficult for bakeries that work on semi-finished products to compete in the market, since supermarkets use the same model:

In our city there was a Pekar network from Omsk, they used freezing, as a result they closed. Today, many discounters and gas station chains operate on frozen pastries, and Fresh Bread departments are appearing there. And here, I must say, they do not lie, the product is really fresh, the only question is the production technology and composition. And, if a bakery works on semi-finished products, how can it compete with a supermarket?

That is why in Khlebnichnaya they immediately decided that they would knead the dough, bake rolls and bread themselves, right on the spot.

To develop the recipe, six technologists had to be replaced: one “put” the bread, the other - the dough for the pies. Today, some breads in the bakery are prepared for days:

There are sourdoughs that must be infused for a day. For example, French baguette sourdough is grown for 24 hours. And we follow this technology, this is our advantage. The same goes for toppings. If we have a lingonberry pie, then we buy frozen lingonberries and put berries in the filling, not jam. In the apple puff we have real apple slices, not cheap Chinese jam, and in the tangerine pie (it is seasonal) we have tangerines. Quality is extremely important for bakeries, no less than a good location.

Economics of the bakery

There are a lot of franchises in the bakery market, and it is easy to find information on the Internet about how much it costs to start this business. Some say that it is enough to invest 1.5 million rubles. in the opening of one point, others say that two, others say that it will take at least 3 million rubles.

Ilya Kazakov says that, as in any business, when opening a bakery, you can go to two extremes: equip everything as economically as possible, purchase cheap equipment, but then this will affect the quality of baking. The second option is to install the most expensive and high-quality equipment, invest millions in repairing the premises, but burn out due to insufficient profit:

It took us 2.5 million rubles to open the first store, today we spend about that much on the launch of the next outlet. The payback period is a year and a half, - says Ilya Kazakov. - Our colleagues in the shop say that they can open a retail outlet for 1.5 million rubles, but, as you understand, there are very few miracles in our world. Of course, you can put an oven for 50 thousand rubles, or you can put a convection oven for 200-300 thousand rubles.

According to Peter Schneider, about a million is required for the purchase of equipment - this is the largest part of the costs, another 700-800 thousand must be allocated for the repair of the premises, plus the purchase of raw materials, inventory and staffing. At the same time, it does not make sense to stop at opening one shop: like for any business, the rule of scale applies to bakeries: the more outlets, the higher the profit.

The cheapest bread in Khlebnichnaya costs 22 rubles. for a roll of 300 g, bread of the middle price category - 30 rubles. for 300 g, special kind of bread - 40-50 rubles. for a bun. The main profit in the bakery is formed by buns, pies and pies with filling. Ilya Kazakov's partner Petr Schneider says:

Bread has always been a social product, and this is a position where you won’t earn much, the price is low and the profitability is low. The business is built on pies, pies and other pastries. Easter cakes became the most profitable product last year. The bakers baked them all night, and by 11 am the shelves were already empty,” he adds.

Franchise is not for everyone

After a year and a half of work, Khlebnichnaya became ready for franchise development, since December 2017, the network owners began to process applications. However, entrepreneurs have a non-standard approach to selling a franchise; for example, they are not ready to share outlets in Yekaterinburg:

We have about 40 franchise requests from different cities of Russia, as well as from Belarus and Kazakhstan. We are ready to share experience, but not in Yekaterinburg. We need to be honest: if a person is going to open Khlebnichnaya in our city, then we will compete with him, which means we will inevitably face a conflict of interests. Unfortunately, even in Yekaterinburg there are many companies that coordinate their franchisees with places that are doomed to failure in advance. It is enough to look at 8 March Street. And we want people to make money.

Elite breads with dried apricots, prunes, a wide range of confectionery products, Turkish delight, sherbet, kazinaki - this is not the whole assortment list that Luninets bakery can offer the buyer today. It is hard to believe that only twenty years ago only bread was produced here. And it is exclusively shaped. They say you can't earn much on bread. And there is indeed a certain amount of truth here. However, folk wisdom says: "Water does not flow under a lying stone." And the Luninets bakers proved this truth by their example. They were able not only to stay afloat in difficult times, but also won their place under the sun in the bakery market. And all thanks to the fact that they are constantly on the lookout for new ways to promote their products.

Bet - on your stores

Luninets bakery was put into operation in 1986 on the basis of a local bakery. The enterprise specialized in the production of exclusively shaped bread. For these purposes, three lines were launched, one of which was assigned to the production of bakery products. The average production capacity of the enterprise at that time was 43 tons of finished products per day. In summer, 1200 tons of bakery products were produced per month, in winter - at least 800 tons.

At present, the appearance of the plant has changed significantly. And both in terms of technical equipment and organization of production. All units were modernized, new Russian-made furnaces were installed instead of old furnaces. They also purchased modern equipment as a set - dividers, seams, and also abandoned continuous dough kneading and relied on periodic dough mixers. This move was due to two reasons. Firstly, production volumes have significantly decreased - from 43 to 8 tons per day. And secondly, the expanding range of products dictated its conditions. As a rule, six or seven types of bread are produced per night on one oven. Therefore, continuous dough kneading under these conditions only slows down the production process. As for the reduction in production volumes, cardinal changes took place here even during perestroika. During this period, the enterprise faced an unexpected problem - competition from consumer cooperatives, which built their own bakeries in Mikashevichi and Luninets.
- Taking into account the presence of their own commodity distribution network, it was easier for them to solve the issue with the implementation, - says the director of the enterprise Konstantin Oliferovich. - We immediately faced the question of where to sell our products. In raipo stores, our bread was accepted in limited quantities - 20-30 loaves per village, and even then only molded bread, and the trade refused to take bakery products at all. It is not surprising that they had to look for a way out and solve difficult problems: how to survive and what measures should be taken for this. As a result, we were forced to create a branded distribution network. So, instead of one store, we got our own retail outlets - three new facilities were built in Luninets and one in Mikashevichi.

But, as time has shown, this was not enough. The next step of the enterprise was the expansion of trade with the help of mobile shops. For this purpose, grain vans were purchased, now there are 19 cars in the company's fleet. At the moment, cars run across the district on eight routes - every day, seven days a week, each car stops at about 25-30 points. Moreover, on the shelves of the "shop on wheels" there are not only bakery products, but also cereals, pasta, flour, matches and other everyday goods. In a word, the entire necessary set of products.

Today, Luninets bakery sells 50% of confectionery through its own distribution network
and 33% bakery, - said Konstantin Mikhailovich. - In August, trade turnover amounted to 1.5 billion rubles, and the profit of the trading network since the beginning of the year - 150 million rubles. The average profitability of the trading network is only 2%. And in general, the company's profitability reached the level of 5.1% for eight months. I agree that the economic indicators are not high, but for us this is a good result. The main thing is that there are no losses. So, this direction justifies itself. In the future, we plan to open our stores not only in the regional center, but also in agro-towns, as well as other large villages.

From bread to sherbet

However, the creation of its own distribution network has become only one of the directions that helped Luninets Plant find its niche in the bakery market. Here they realized in time that being competitive, relying only on bread, is simply unrealistic in modern conditions. To feel confident, it is necessary to increase the range of products. And not only traditional. Today, in addition to bread and bakery products, the company produces a wide range of confectionery items - from cakes and pastries to various types of cookies and gingerbread. Plus, there are gourmet-oriented products - Turkish delight, sherbet, kazinaki, which are produced in the workshop of oriental sweets.

We plan to continue the policy aimed at expanding the range, - Konstantin Oliferovich shares. - In the near future we are going to master the production of marshmallows and marshmallows in chocolate. Among other ideas - improving the production of crackers. On the one hand, we are considering the option of producing such products with fillings - poppy seeds and raisins. On the other hand, we want to offer consumers a traditional product not only in weight format, but also in special small packages. In addition, we purchased a glazing machine this year. Previously, all our cakes and pastries were glazed at the enterprise manually, but now we can put their production on stream. I have no doubt that this will bring a positive economic effect. Meanwhile, this is not the only equipment that has recently appeared at the plant. Another novelty of the current year is a horizontal packaging machine from Veldan LLC. Here they understand that products should be tasty not only inside, but also outside, attracting even the most demanding customers with their appearance. So in the near future, lovers of Luninets delight, sherbet and kazinaki will be pleasantly surprised by the bright colorful look of the familiar delicacy. At the moment, the company is actively developing the design of their packaging. As for another technical novelty - a compressor for lubricating bread forms and sheets - this equipment, supplied by the same Veldan company, made it possible to significantly facilitate the production process, completely abandon the use of sunflower and rapeseed oil and switch to Dubor oil.

Delivery of raw materials - on their own

A few years ago, we removed another problem from the agenda - the delivery of raw materials, - says the head of the enterprise. - We bought our own flour carrier and began to supply flour directly. To be honest, immediately the mountain fell off my shoulders. Previously, every morning began with the same thing - with a discussion of the question of how to bring flour to the factory. Baranovichi flour trucks run on compressed gas, they need refueling on the way, but there is no such refueling in Luninets. As for another raw material base - Pinsk - the local haulers have reduced the number of flour delivery vehicles to a minimum. If a car broke down, then the transport was not to be interrogated. Now we do not depend on anyone, we work exclusively for ourselves.

In addition, this option is also beneficial from an economic point of view, since now the delivery of flour costs the company two times cheaper. So the flour truck, for the purchase of which 170 million rubles had to be spent, has long paid for itself. It is not surprising that other bakeries are going to follow the example of Luninets: the issue of purchasing their own machine is already being decided in Pinsk and David-Gorodok.

Return option

I must say that the distinctive feature of the Luninets bakery is loyalty to its consumers, who are accustomed to a certain taste of Luninets bread - without baking powder, preservatives and various artificial additives. Here they are not chasing fashion, but are trying to make high-quality, high-quality products, focusing on traditional technologies.

I am not a supporter of extended deadlines for implementation, - Konstantin Mikhailovich expresses his point of view. - A cookie that can lie on the counter for six months is not a cookie. Real bakery or confectionery products can be called those that are baked today, and tomorrow they are already on the consumer's table. I agree that such products are expensive for enterprises. On the other hand, this problem can be solved simply by installing special ovens in stores - for additional baking of products from blanks. With this layout, factories will supply goods there in a semi-baked or frozen state, and store workers will reheat and bake them. Certainly, this is the future. And first of all, because it is not yet possible to install such equipment in our stores: they do not meet either in size, or in terms of sanitary requirements, or in terms of technical characteristics. Although I am sure that over time we will still come to this option.

The company also has its own view on the return of products that have not been sold in stores, with which faced by any bakery. The Luninets enterprise was no exception here either. The share of return, although small - 2%, but in any case it is. From the reverse processing of such substandard, which is practiced by many enterprises in the industry, it was decided to refuse here. Considering that this will inevitably affect the quality of products. As a result, they decided to go the other way: in their outlets they began to sell the returned goods to the population without a trade margin with zero profitability for livestock and poultry feed.

Personnel potential

Despite the fact that the enterprise is aimed at increasing production indicators, the plant director emphasizes that the main wealth of any production is people. This means that their working conditions should be comfortable and safe. And for this, everything possible is being done at the plant. All employees are promptly provided with overalls and the necessary tools and materials, and the best ones. The workshops are equipped with modern locker rooms and comfortable showers. There is a gym at the enterprise, as well as a billiard room. Twice a year, excursions are organized for employees both within Belarus and to neighboring countries - Ukraine and Russia. Above average, by the standards of Luninets, wages are also here - more than 4 million rubles. It is not surprising that there is no staff turnover at the enterprise - 60% of the staff are people who have worked at the plant for 20 years or more.