Marketing research of the confectionery market in the Russian Federation. Structure of consumption by federal districts

The information was prepared for the Publishing House "Sphere" according to the data from the marketing research "Confectionery market in Russia", as well as assessments and opinions of experts from the company TEBIZ GROUP

Full version of the study: Analysis of the confectionery market

Publishing house "Sphere": What is a confectionery product? what types of confectionery are there? How much does the average resident in Russia consume?

Tebiz Group:

Confectionery products are food products that are high in calories and contain a large amount of sugar. There are flour and sugar confectionery products. The first type includes products in which the main ingredient is sugar. Explicit representatives of this group are sweets, marshmallows, caramel, chocolate, marmalade, marshmallow. The second type includes products in which the main ingredients are sugar and flour. As an example, you can select cookies, cakes, pies, cakes, gingerbread, waffles and muffins.

The average resident of Russia in 2012 ate 23 kg of sweets, of which 12 kg were sugary products, and 11 kg were flour products.

Publishing House "Sphere": What are the results of the country's confectionery industry? Where are the main production facilities located? Which enterprises have the largest output volumes?

Tebiz Group:

In 2012, the volume of confectionery production in Russia increased by 1% (for comparison, in 2011 the increase was 6%). For the market now, the ability of confectioners to show imagination and release fundamentally new or modified products on the market on a regular basis is of great importance.

The leader in the production of confectionery products in Russia is the Moscow region. In 2012, about 10% of all domestic products were produced in this region. In second place is Moscow, its figure is slightly lower and amounts to 8%. Closes the top three with 6% St. Petersburg. Lipetsk and Vladimir regions each produce 4% of the total Russian production.

The leading Russian enterprises producing confectionery products in Russia are: OJSC "Mars" (Moscow region), OJSC Lipetsk confectionery factory "Roshen" (Lipetsk region), CJSC "KONTI-RUS" (Kursk region), OJSC "Craft Foods Rus" ( Vladimir Region), ROT FRONT OJSC (Moscow), Rossiya Confectionery Association OJSC (Samara Region), KDV YASHKINO OJSC (Kemerovo Region), Slavyanka Plus OJSC (Belgorod Region), Chipita St. Petersburg" (St. Petersburg), OJSC "Confectionery concern Babaevsky" (Moscow), CJSC "Confectionery factory "Slavyanka" (Belgorod region), OJSC "AKKOND" (Chuvash Republic), OJSC "Bryankonfi" (Bryansk region), Ulyanovsk branch JSC "Confectionery association "SLADKO" (Ulyanovsk region).

Publishing house "Sphere": What results did the retail trade show in 2012? Are there any major changes?

Tebiz Group:

Based on the preliminary estimates of the retail audit, we can say that the volume of trade in confectionery products in 2012 increased to 620-630 billion rubles. This is more than in the previous year by 7-8%. The largest sales volumes are predictably recorded in the capital of Russia. Moscow provides 18% of all-Russian revenue from the trade in confectionery. However, its share has declined over the past few years, so back in 2009 the contribution of the capital to the structure of retail sales in Russia was estimated at 20%. For such massive and stable sectors as the bakery and confectionery market, this is a significant change. Following the capital with a share of 6% comes the Moscow region. The third place with the same indicators is shared by the Sverdlovsk region, the Samara region and St. Petersburg (4% each region). In 2012, the most significant progress was seen in Krasnodar Territory, Stavropol Territory and Voronezh Region.

Publishing house "Sphere": How is the situation with prices on the market? Which of the confectionery products has risen in price more than the others?

Tebiz Group:

Retail prices for all types of products of the confectionery industry have been showing positive dynamics for quite a long time. 2011 showed the highest rate of growth in average annual prices for sweets over the past few years. Among the leaders are marshmallows and marshmallows (17.0%), chocolate (13.7%) and gingerbread (12.8%)

As for the situation in 2012, at that time there was a moderate increase in product prices. The recorded dynamics for various categories of confectionery varies from 6.5% to 9.4% per year. The main points of growth in the product-price plane are jam and jam (9.4%), marshmallows and marshmallows (9.2%), chocolate-glazed sweets (8.4%).

Publishing house "Sphere": What is the share of foreign-made goods on the market? Has accession to the WTO affected the Russian market?

Tebiz Group:

The Russian confectionery market is in the TOP-5 of the world's largest markets. It presents a large number of confectionery products from world concerns with well-known brands (Snickers, Mars, Roshen, Kraft Foods, etc.). Nevertheless, the products of these brands are produced directly in Russia: foreign companies built/acquired production facilities in the country where they planned to sell them to increase the profitability of their business.

The share of imported goods in the Russian confectionery market is only 12%. This value has remained unchanged over the past few years.

Accession to the WTO did not have a significant impact on the Russian confectionery market. The volume of imports in 2012, as well as in 2011, showed a dynamics of 4%. As for export deliveries from Russia, their volume remained at the level of the previous year. Customs duties for the past year have not changed.

Publishing House "Sphere": How has the volume of the market changed in recent years? What types of confectionery are the most popular among Russians?

Tebiz Group:

After the events of 2008, experts' opinions about the market were divided. Some of them thought that during the crisis, the population will consume more sweets (a way to please yourself and improve your mood during stress). The other part predicted a reduction in the volume of the confectionery market, based on the upcoming decrease in the level of real incomes. The latter turned out to be right about 2009, when the market showed a negative growth rate of 3%. However, then the market trend changed and during 2010-2011. the market showed positive dynamics at the level of 5-6%. In 2012, the Russian confectionery market also grew, but only by 1%. This indicator makes it possible for the existence of many scenarios for the further movement of the market. According to Tebiz Group forecasts, the most likely scenario is the market stagnation at around 3.3 million tons for the next few years.

1. sweets glazed with chocolate (21%);
2. biscuits (including biscuits and crackers) (20%);
3. cakes and pastries (8%);
4. chocolate and chocolate products (8%).

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Until 2015, the Russian confectionery market was one of the most actively developing segments of the consumer sector of the economy. Recently, however, the share of lovers of sweets began to fall sharply. The consumption of imported confectionery, primarily chocolate and flour products, decreased the most. According to a study of the bakery and confectionery market conducted in September 2016, compared to 2013, the share of buyers of cream products in Moscow decreased by 19 p.p., and the share of buyers of small-piece confectionery products (cookies, dried gingerbread) - by 5 p.p. .P. (Fig. 1)

Picture 1. Purchase of confectionery products in 2013 and 2016, % of respondents

Why is this happening?

The first reason that lies on the surface is the reduction in consumer spending of Russians due to the weakening of the ruble, the reduction in household incomes and rising consumer prices. Thus, according to the Center for Research on the Confectionery Market, in 2015, prices for confectionery products increased by an average of 24% in Russia as a whole.

The second trend, which, according to market experts, affects consumer activity, is the desire of an increasing number of Russians to bake bakery products on their own. In this regard, there was an increased demand for the purchase of ingredients for baking.

The desire of consumers to lead a healthy lifestyle, and manufacturers - not to lose their customers leads to a change in the positioning of confectionery and bakery products. The most common claims that accompany a new product on the global market are: “no additives and / or preservatives”, “low and / or free of allergens”, “whole grain”, “gluten free” and others. On the Russian market, there are such statements as “supporting a healthy condition and heart function”, “ease of use”, “eco-friendly packaging”, “for normalization of digestion”, “for weight loss”, “non-GMO”, “enriched with protein” and others .

Also, more and more often specialized (for a specific group of people) bakery and confectionery products appear on the shelves of Russian stores and are in demand, for example, for pensioners or people with a certain type of disease.

Sweet satiety will not soon be full

As noted above, compared to 2013, the share of buyers of small-piece products decreased from 57% to 52%. It is important to note that the vast majority of Muscovites surveyed are still more likely to buy small-piece confectionery products in packages, rather than by weight. Women and youth continue to be more active buyers of these products. Also, women are generally more aware of confectionery manufacturers than men.

If we talk about the preferences of Muscovites in terms of types of confectionery, biscuits, as in 2013, remain the most purchased in the capital - they are chosen by 76% of the surveyed buyers of "small things" (Fig. 2). It should be noted that for many types of confectionery there is a decrease in the share of buyers. Thus, Muscovites are less in demand for dried bread and bagels (-8 p.p.), marshmallows (-5 p.p.) and oriental sweets (-7 p.p.).

Figure 2. Preferences by types of small-piece confectionery, % of the number of buyers

What's with what? It is possible to single out separate groups of small-piece confectionery products, the purchase of which is typical for the same consumers. For example, most often they buy marshmallows, marmalade and marshmallows together. Gingerbread cookies are purchased together with cookies, waffles and muffins. If Muscovites buy dryers, bagels, then there is a high probability that they will also buy sweet crackers. Oriental sweets are purchased by those who love cookies and waffle cakes. The results obtained indicate the interchangeability of certain small-piece confectionery products included in one group, which in particular can manifest itself in a situation of joint purchase of specific types of products, as well as an alternative to others.

As for the places to buy confectionery, the following picture is observed here: supermarkets and hypermarkets are becoming an increasingly popular place to buy sweets. In 2013, 57% of the surveyed Muscovites purchased “small things” there for themselves and their families, today this share has grown to 69%. At the same time, there is a decrease in the share of buyers of confectionery products in convenience stores: 18% against 34% in 2013 (Figure 3).

Figure 3 Places of purchases of small-piece confectionery products, % of small-piece buyers

If we talk about the level of expenses of Muscovites for one purchase of small-piece confectionery, then, according to data for 2016, 66% of respondents spend no more than 300 rubles at a time, which is comparable to the data of a study conducted in 2013.

It is also interesting that over the past 3 years, the level of confidence of Muscovites in Russian confectionery manufacturers has significantly increased (from 52% in 2013 to 63% in 2016). Moreover, this did not happen due to an increase in distrust towards foreign manufacturers, but due to a decrease in the proportion of those who answered “it's hard to say, it depends on the specific brand”.

If they don't have bread, let them eat cake!

The share of buyers of cream confectionery products has significantly decreased compared to 2013. However, this had little effect on the frequency of buying cakes and pastries, on the contrary, the share of those who bought pastries several times a week increased by 6 p.p. and at the time of the survey was 12%.

The main place to purchase cream products, as well as “small things”, is retail chains – it is chosen by 62% of buyers of cream products. Manufacturers' branded stores are less popular, where 16% of the respondents buy these products, and no more than 7% of respondents buy them in specialized confectionery stores and bakeries.

Consumers of cakes began to purchase products that are lighter in weight: 45% of the Muscovites surveyed weighed less than a kilogram of their last purchase, while in 2013 the share of such purchases was 34%. The reason for this decline can be explained, at least, by the fact that cream cakes, which have the smallest volume, require more significant costs from buyers.

Figure 4 Weight of the last cream cake purchase, % of buyers of cream products

At the same time, the cost of the average purchase of cakes increased significantly compared to 2013 (by 23%) and amounted to 611 rubles. As for cakes, on average, Muscovites spent 241 rubles on the last purchase of this product.

The most recognizable and bought products in Moscow are products manufactured under the U Palycha brand (Company M LLC, Samara), - 91% of buyers of cream products know this brand, and 55% have purchased it over the past 6 months. The products of KF Oktyabr LLC (Moscow region) and Fili-Baker LLC (Moscow) are also highly recognizable - they are chosen by 74 and 67% of respondents, respectively (Figure 5).

Figure 5 The fame of manufacturers of cream confectionery. TOP-10, % of buyers of cream products

Existing trends in the consumer market, namely: rising prices, lower consumer spending and incomes, focus on healthy and wholesome products, have affected the purchasing preferences of Muscovites and negatively affected the confectionery and bakery products market as a whole. But, despite some negative wave, such an atmosphere always leads to new discoveries, expanding the range, improving product quality.

The study was conducted by telephone survey among Muscovites aged 18 to 60 who buy bakery and confectionery products in May-June 2013, 938 people were interviewed, in September 2016 - 1205 people.

The cake market is divided into two large segments - products with a short and long shelf life.

Products with a three-day consumption period, which are produced by almost every bakery and confectionery workshop, are purchased by about 70% of housewives.

The modern market for cakes and pastries is characterized by the appearance of products that can be stored for a long time. The vast majority of companies strive for dynamic development, namely, to enter the federal level. In this regard, a wide variety of pies, cakes and muffins are made, which are not afraid of long-term transportation.

Such products are quite unpretentious in storage. Proponents of the classic preparation of perishable cakes do not perceive competition from such products, they simply do not rank it in their market.

Today, there is a tendency to purchase cakes not only for celebrations, but also for everyday consumption, especially for long-term storage cakes. Every year the range of the market is expanding, and buyers see a variety of new items from small regional and large domestic manufacturers.

According to experts, the culture of sweet consumption among the population is at the stage of formation, respectively, and the demand for high quality confectionery products will tend to increase.

In this regard, the consumption of cakes is increasing, especially if we compare the crisis years of 2008-2009, when there was a significant decline in sales.

It is important to note that the market is characterized by inelastic demand, so a slight increase in the cost of production will not affect sales. Therefore, it is much easier for manufacturers to adjust pricing in the event of an increase in prices for ingredients and components.

Consumer preferences in the market of cakes and other flour confectionery

The most preferred places to buy confectionery products are shown in the figure.

More and more companies are developing their own market strategy by complete rejection of the use of traditional recipes. The release of products that are unique in their kind fully justifies itself, since everything original is in demand. However, there is a tendency to import such a finished product from the West.

Thus, trading companies that organize regular deliveries from European countries or manufacturers that have adopted the experience and technological support of foreign colleagues are in an advantageous position.

Almost every third consumer purchases cakes and pastries approximately once a month.

Based on marketing research, our compatriots prefer local manufacturers. The most popular places to buy flour confectionery products are small grocery stores and supermarkets. In the process of choosing products, the vast majority of people surveyed are guided by previous purchase experience. After that, attention is drawn to the appearance, composition and cost of the cake.

If earlier the consumer paid special attention to the qualitative and quantitative composition of the product, today the short shelf life of the product is closely studied, which indicates its naturalness. The modern consumer is willing to pay for exceptional quality and the absence of preservatives, even at the expense of reduced frequency of consumption.

Due to the limited shelf life (72 -125 hours), the segment of classic cakes and pastries is exclusively a local market with competitive rules.

The growth rate of the market is held back by an acute shortage of professional confectioners.

At the same time, the consumption of cakes with a long shelf life is increasing every year. Cakes with whipped cream, as well as yoghurt and curd products are also popular.

The latter variety is characterized by the use of fresh and frozen berries, which contribute to the fortification of the cake. Fruit and berry products are perceived by consumers as a low-calorie confectionery product with obvious benefits for the body.

A high-tech business requires significant investment in equipment. Without a marketing budget, it will be quite difficult to organize and adjust the supply of products.

Without a doubt, cakes will be successful if a number of conditions are met: the proper level of quality, excellent taste characteristics, an interesting design of the box and product finish, a recognizable trademark, and an acceptable price. Such promising products have every chance of becoming a brand.

I want to note the serious changes in the Russian confectionery market, which have affected me, my family, and have not passed by each of you and your loved ones. These changes open up new opportunities, and it is precisely today that the confectionery store as a business is promising and timely. What are these changes, why a small business in the confectionery industry gets new chances for development, we will understand in a detailed article.

 

The history of the confectionery business spans over 20 centuries. The first merchants of sweets arrived in the territory of modern Europe from the east as early as the 6th-5th century BC. Primitive lollipops, simple pastries, cottage cheese and sugar baklava were on the tables of the ancient nobility. In the Middle Ages, spices were brought to Europe from India and chocolate from South America. It was a revolutionary moment in the history of the confectionery business.

In France, coffee shops and chocolate shops were opened, in England, scones (a kind of cupcakes), popular to this day, appeared. Russian pretzels and pies also aroused interest abroad. However, it was not until the end of the 18th century that cultural traditions, different confectionery techniques, textures and completely different ingredients could be combined, and the next century is considered the birth of world confectionery cooking. France is considered to be its homeland. But there is another, no less popular direction of confectionery art - the eastern one.

It is difficult to compare French desserts and oriental delights, baklava and Saint Honoré, Turkish delight and Tiramisu. However, oriental techniques for making sweets have about 40% of fans all over the world, so you can’t ignore them.

Consumer demand for sweets has been at a high level for almost 300 years. Moreover, the change in market conditions is obvious: if back in the 1920s gingerbread and cakes were bought as a festive attribute, now the culture of consumption of sweets brings sweet dishes into everyday consumption.

We regularly see pastry shops and coffee houses on the streets, offering a wide range of complex and simple sweets. Strudels, cheesecakes, brownies, muffins, cupcakes are waiting for us at gas stations, in the halls of business centers, in parks and theater buffets, in street stalls and even McDonald's. Confectionery products from the group of elite privileged products have moved into the category of fast food.

But even this serious market change is not the root cause for a new round of development in the small business segment. The fact that cakes and pastries have become the usual affordable “fast food” for every day has led to their reduction in price at the expense of quality. Instead of butter, confectioners use spreads, instead of vegetable fats - animal or synthetic, etc. This makes the cost of the product lower, which allows you to survive in the competition.

The main features of the confectionery market in Russia

The Russian confectionery environment, thanks to the fundamental school of the Soviet Union, has a good quality theoretical and practical base. However, due to the closeness of Soviet policy, a moment of flexibility was lost. Now the dynamics of development of the domestic confectionery is significantly lower than the Western one. However, if we compare the quality of in-line products, then even taking into account the trend of cheaper products, the products of our, Russian companies, can be called tasty and edible, which, alas, cannot be said about many European goods (let me emphasize, we are not talking about private confectionery shops yet).

Features of the Russian confectionery market are:

• short term of realization of products;
• the complexity of large-scale logistics and long-distance delivery;
• a huge number of types and subspecies of products;
• complete dependence of producers on the quality of raw materials from suppliers (ingredient products);
• the tradition of consuming homemade cakes;
• a wide selection of authentic, local raw materials for fillers (berries, fruits, nuts;
• tight competition in the niche of inexpensive confectionery products and low competition in the segment of natural, high-quality, expensive products;
• the prevalence of small businesses in the segment of fresh baked goods.

Now, as mentioned above, the Russian confectionery market is filled with low-quality cheap products, and finding a cake that is tasty, beautiful, and at the same time natural and safe for children's health is almost impossible.

On this dissonance, private traders survive who make cakes to order, small mini-bakeries, private pastry shops that work for 1-2 cafes or a couple of shops. Therefore, now the confectionery shop as a business is interesting and has a good prospect of income.

Experts comment on the market:

Alto Consulting Group in its study of the Russian confectionery market focuses on the constant and non-stop growth of piece goods turnover. Number of items. produced on the territory of the Russian Federation is growing, consumption too. However, compared to the increase in prices in 2013, the current market, despite major changes in the ratio of currencies, has remained virtually unchanged. The quality of the ingredients is reduced, due to this, the retail price of a confectionery product, instead of a natural increase, is kept at the same level.

And now let's take a closer look at the prices themselves, broken down by the federal districts of Russia:

This picture demonstrates a hypothesis stating that the reduction in quality and cost of production releases a niche for high-quality fresh baked goods and / or complex confectionery products with a short shelf life. This is exactly the segment in which small businesses can thrive. We have already considered how to open a pastry shop or pastry shop from scratch in one of the articles, so we will not dwell on this moment, but will limit ourselves to the statement that this business is now promising in a number of ways:

• large manufacturers work for the shaft, so they strive to maintain maximum sales times, which cannot be achieved using exclusively natural ingredients;
• the need for high-quality, natural and safe goods, especially in the segment of children's products, remains more and more unfulfilled;
• The market requires great flexibility from manufacturers, the ability to follow fashion and capture changing taste preferences, which large factories and concerns cannot technically implement or do it very clumsily and for a long time.

Here is evidence of a change in the structure of demand, as can be seen from the graph below, the growth in the production of cakes and pastries that are not durable

Rice. 2. The number of tons of products by types of confectionery products produced in Russia for the period 2010-2013. Dynamics of market development in unit equivalent.

How the confectionery business works: a description of business models and a brief market analysis

As in any other segment, in the confectionery business there are several models that are implemented for the purpose of making a profit:

Model 1: Manufacture and sale of own products through a network of branded stores and / or contractors (a striking example is the Krasny Oktyabr Confectionery Factory, Moscow). The advantage of this model is direct communication with the consumer, and the disadvantage is high economic risks.

Model 2: Manufacture of products under the order of contractors (this is how the Lironas Confectionery Company, the Volga region, works). Plus models in reduced costs for the sale of products. but the downside is. that the manufacturer actually cannot track the buyer's reaction to a change in the assortment portfolio, prices. quality and does so through focus groups and research. which is also not cheap.

Model 3: Manufacture of products and sale through franchised customers. In this case, the manufacturer sells his products in stores operating under his trademark, for example, the Medobory confectionery shop, Crimea. The advantage of the model is that there are practically no costs for sales promotion and the creation of a distribution network, and the disadvantage is that the company's reputation cannot be controlled (if any of the franchised clients behaves inappropriately with the buyer, the manufacturer's image suffers).

In other words, you need to separate two business processes:

1. production of confectionery products and their sale. There are companies that combine these two processes.
2. manufacturing and wholesale, or wholesale and retail. There are enterprises that use only one process in full, and the second - in a truncated one.

Among the largest Russian manufacturers, one can also note such as: the confectionery factory KDV Yashkino (Kemerovo region), the confectionery group of enterprises "Konti", OJSC Lipetsk confectionery factory "Roshen", the confectionery factory "Akkond" (Cheboksary), OJSC "Craft Foods Rus" (Vladimir region), Chipita confectionery factory (St. Petersburg), Galan confectionery factory (Krasnodar Territory), ROT FRONT OJSC (Moscow).

Important points in the organization of the confectionery business are:

• selection of a niche for the production / sale of products (today the snack group is filled, and an acute shortage is observed in the field of short-term storage cream products);
• selection of a place and competent calculation of the turnover of a confectionery outlet;
• choice of supplier.

It is on the choice of a supplier that I would like to focus attention. When a novice entrepreneur is about to plunge into the confectionery market, it is important for him to get a hot commodity. To do this, you need to understand what kind of products you would like to sell.

Confectionery products are products of daily demand: on average, each inhabitant of Russia in 2012 consumed 23 kg of sweets, of which 12 kg were sugary, and 11 kg were flour products. At the same time, about 18% of sweets are bought in Moscow.

Competition in the Russian confectionery market is high. Today, the industry has about 1,500 organizations in all regions of the Russian Federation and more than 15,000 local confectioneries (Rosstat data). enterprises producing 55 percent of the total annual turnover of products.

The largest segments of confectionery products in the Russian market:

• chocolates - 21%;
• all types of cookies (including crackers) - 20%;
• cream products (cakes, pastries) - 8%;
• bar and figured chocolate - 8%.

In the period 2010 - 2014, according to Rosstat, the share of imports is constantly decreasing and before the introduction of the food embargo in August, it was 12.2%. Domestic production, respectively, is about 87.8%. The main suppliers of sugary confectionery products to Russia (sugar products include sweets, caramel, toffee and dragees):

For thirteen years (2000-2013), according to Rosstat indicators, the demand for raw materials such as sugar has been showing constant growth, and since sugar is an integral ingredient in confectionery, experts tend to see a direct relationship with an increase in demand for ready-made confectionery. The growth dynamics averages 5% annually. Those. we can say that every year the consumption of confectionery products in Russia increases by 5% (both in value and piece equivalent).

Experts believe that by 2017 the market volume will reach $4.5 billion.

Since confectionery products are not essential products, the demand for them is driven by tradition and external market influences.

The structure of food expenses of an average Russian family includes about 9.5 - 15% of the costs related to confectionery. With the size of the food basket of 1 Russian family (3 people) in the amount of 9.5 thousand rubles, an average of 1,500 rubles is spent on confectionery products per month. If this figure is attributed to the number of households in Russia (52,707 thousand), then we get the nominal market volume: 79 billion rubles per month.

Analysis of the seasonality of the confectionery business

Seasonal fluctuations in demand for confectionery products are an objective reality in all areas of the market. This factor has a significant impact on both sales volumes and their structure. Therefore, a comparative analysis in this industry is most adequately carried out by comparing the same periods of the reporting and last years, since adjacent periods can radically differ in terms of the level of turnover, the structure of sales, depending on the influence of holidays, fasting, the holiday season, the appearance of substitutes (berries, fruits), etc.

Below are the seasonality coefficients calculated on the basis of base December - as the month with the highest turnover in the confectionery industry, due to the pre-New Year mood of the consumer (see Figure 1, Diagram 1).

Tab. 1. The index of seasonality of the confectionery business, due to traditional holidays and climatic features.

				Impact on consumer activity
				New Year according to the old calendar
				Easter, parent's day
				the appearance of the first seasonal berries
				Great demand for berries, fruits
				holiday season in coastal and tourist regions
September				holiday season in coastal and tourist regions
				weather demand
				New Year, corporate holidays

Periods with approximately the same level of buyer activity are highlighted with one color scheme.

Thus, the 1st phase of seasonality (orange) is characterized by increased demand, due to the presence of holidays. In this phase, February is weak due to the short monthly period.

Seasonal phase 2 (blue) is characterized by a sharp decline in demand until July, which is associated with Lent, the appearance of cheaper substitutes, and the onset of a warm period. In April, there is a change in the structure of production: the sale of cream products by weight decreases, the sale of flour products (Kulich) increases, which affects the turnover. This phase is most in need of marketing stimulation and maintenance of sales volume.

July (yellow) is a transitional month from phase 2 to phase 3 (green), characterized by a gradual increase in trade turnover and, accordingly, output. According to the seasonality coefficient, it is comparable with the 4th phase (yellow) of consumer activity observed in October, November, where the opposite trend is observed - a decrease in trade turnover and output due to the outflow of tourists from recreational areas, the absence of traditional holidays until mid-December.

December (red) is the month with the highest turnover in the industry. These seasonal factors are average for the market as a whole.

Small business in the confectionery arena

The implementation of the confectionery business in the segment of private entrepreneurship is, as a rule, a cafe-confectionery. There are few options for implementing this format: a private trader can organize his own small production (confectionery shop for 100-300 kg per day) or purchase finished confectionery products from nearby suppliers.

The advantages of own production are direct contact with the consumer, the uniqueness of the offer and the ability to adapt the assortment to the needs of visitors. However, this is also the difficulty: in order to release a new type of product, the shop must develop technological maps and change the production scheme. These are time and financial costs.

When purchasing products from a large supplier (or several), the exclusivity of the product itself is lost, but the risk of unjustified costs for the creation of production lines is leveled. In addition, this scheme is more quickly paid back.

Therefore, opening a confectionery cafe should be started with a fundamental decision: we produce it ourselves or we buy finished products from a large manufacturer. If an entrepreneur nevertheless decides to start his own mini-workshop, then the costs of a technologist, shift confectioners, equipment and storage facilities, where both finished products and blanks will be stored, should be taken into account.

It is warehouse storage that is often not provided for by novice businessmen, which leads to enormous problems: products are light, but very voluminous and capricious. For example. to accommodate 20-25 standard cakes, you need a rack with shelves 1.5 * 1.5 m in a cool place with a sanitary permit. And if we are talking about baking, then the cornerstone is the wear resistance of the equipment, since you cannot prepare such products for use.

Benchmarketing: Successful Examples of Implementing a Small Confectionery Business

Foreign models:

Ukraine

An unexpectedly interesting confectionery operates in the small Ukrainian town of Melitopol. Despite the provincial nature of the city itself, the confectionery surprises with sophistication, competent products, a wide coffee list and author's recipes:

Coffee house-confectionery "Bourgeois", Melitopol - restaurant project. This is a full-fledged coffee shop with its own confectionery shop. Interesting and refined products, classic interior and at the same time low prices (average bill $10-12).

France

CAFÉ POUCHKINE, Paris - patisserie in the style of an 18th century French palace. Visitors can choose from cakes with cream, honey, berries, fruits, jam, macaroons, custom-made cakes made from cream, sweets, powdered sugar. Average bill $5-25