Who owns Russian Swissgum rights?
to buyers at the Ice Cream and Frozen Food exhibition in Moscow
following a licensing agreement wth the product's creator,
Swissgum. But another Russian firm, Pavlov, claims that it was
granted the exclusive Russian distribution rights by Swissgum back
in November 2004, so just who owns what, asks Angela
Drujinina.
Pavlov's announcment that it had clinched the exclusive distribution rights for Swissgum was seen as something of a coup, as the Swissgum brand is regarded as one of the best in Europe, competing alongside other market leaders such as Danisco and Palsgaard.
Soyuzsnab, however, appears to be using the Swissgum brand legitimately, although unnamed sources claimed that the stabilisers are in fact being made a company set up by former employees of Mayhall, which makes the Mayprojen stabiliser brand.
Andrey Antonov, the head of Soyuzsnab's priority projects department, refused to answer CEE-foodindustry.com's questions on the issue: "We will not comment on our new ice cream stabilisers partnership, or why we joined forces with our new collaborator."
He did say, however, that the choice of both product and supplier was a taken very seriously by Soyuzsnab, and that only market leading companies and brands were selected as potetnial partners.
Aleksey Babenko, technology manager at Pavlov, was more forthcoming. "A wide range of stabilisers are made under the Swissgum brand," he told CEE-foodindustry.com. "We have simply divided up the Russian market with Soyuzsnab- they sell stabilisers for ice cream and we sell stabilizers for everything else: sour cream, yoghurt, cheese, dairy desserts, sterilised milk and so on."
But Babenko was unable to clear up the issue of who was producing the stabilisers for Soyuzsnab. "As far as I am aware, there is only one producer of Swissgum products, i.e. Swissgum AG [the brand's owner]. But I suppose if they were to grant a production licence, there could be other manufacturers."
Soyuzsnab is Russia's leading supplier of ingredients, acting primarily as an importer and distributor, although it has recently begun moving into manufacture as well. Pavlov, meanwhile, is one of Moscow's biggest suppliers of cheese and butter, supplying wholesalers and retailers in the capital and its surrounding region market. It is also a supplier of ingredients and equipment to the local dairy industry.
How much demand there will be for stabilisers for ice cream production remains to be seen, however. Market analysts KomKon suggest that the Russian ice cream market is in decline, falling by 3-5 per cent a year as a result of consumers switching to other snack products such as chocolate bars, chips, snacks and even beer. These products are also seen as having more high profile advertising campaigns than ice cream, further adding to the problems.
In any case, Russian citizens do not eat a lot of ice cream, consuming just 2.5kg per person on average each year, compared to 10kg in western Europe or 15kg in the US.
According to Veaceslav Vygodin, chairman of the Russian Ice Cream Manufacturers Associaiton, said that the decline in sales was due mainly to an uninspiring product range, and increase in productions costs (and therefore sales price) and a poor marekting strategy, not to mention a lack of appropriate refrigeration equipment.
Russian tastes have also changed dramatically since the 1990s, and ice cream manufacturers have been the slowest to keep up with this change in consumption patterns. New product development will have to play a major role in the future if the industry is to attract new consumers, but companies are already increasing their investment in this key area. For example, Swissgum's stabilisers are to be used in a new range of fat- and sugar-free ice cream aimed at the increasingly health-conscious Russian population.
