First Russian organic supermarket has finally opened its doors

The organic supermarket Grunwald was a very long awaited project. Its opening created a stir and made people’s blood run faster. There were some who didn’t believe in the project, others who were rather sceptical, and the rest who said – let's wait and see. Now all Grunwald's people who worked so hard on launching this project can say – Yes! We did it!

Picture: Manager Eugeniy Trostentcov (left)

The Grunwald store opened its doors in September 2006. In terms of ecology, its location is in one of the most favourable districts in Moscow near the metro station Molodeghnaya. This district (located in the north-west of Moscow near Roublevskaya highway) is historically one of the most affluent and up-market in Moscow – it is no wonder that a premium class store has been created here, where the people have significant incomes and open minds.

The store, designed in the Aleksey Levin workshop, is really beautiful. All the shelves and display windows are made out of natural wood (picture) that gives visitors a warm, cosy feeling. Grunwald is really big, with 1530 m² in total and 860 m² of sales space that is big enough for the store to have a special organic bakery (Schedel’s), confectionary, a café for adults and children, equipment for producing handmade chocolate in the shopping area itself and lots of special areas including tasting rooms, a beauty parlour and subsidiary spaces for preparing ready-to-eat and semi-prepared food. Also, a large area is devoted to storage, with all the facilities having a different temperature to keep products fresh and tasty.

The bakery is supplied exclusively by the organic bakery Schedel in Germany. In advance of the opening, Siegfried Schedel (picture) was in Moscow to advise the manager Eugeny Trostentcov. The oven was supplied by Mr Schedel as well. He is very happy with the turnover at Grunwald: “The store is run extremely well and is equal to a German store in every respect. The turnover of bakery goods is even a little higher than comparable stores in the initial phase.” The Schedel company supplies the 100 m² Grunwald bakery with around 30 of the 69 products on sale as frozen uncooked or semi-cooked items which greatly extend the range of local organic bakery goods. Best sellers are the various kinds of croissants. Mr Schedel describes the process of obtaining an export licence as hugely expensive: “The veterinary authorities examined all ingredients, origins and processing for a whole year before granting permission to export.”

The Grunwald store's product range is really huge and consists of more than 2000 items of certified organic origin, including cosmetics and non-chemical products for household use, in washing machines and dishwashers. The different sections stock the whole range of  foods needed every day: fresh fruit and vegetables, dairy products, milk products, a wide selection of cheeses (picture), bakery and confectionary products, fresh meat and meat products, fish and seafood, frozen food, a range of grocery goods – pastas, spreads, oils, soups, etc., as well as baby food, pet food, juices and organic wines.

97 % of all these products come from European suppliers. Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland and Belgium are the leading suppliers (it is interesting that practically all the deals were concluded at BioFach in Germany). Among the suppliers are many well-known European producers and distributors such as Ecomaat, Klar, Dr. Hauschka, Martin Evers Naturkost, Oleanat, Sodasan, Söbbeke, Vivani and Voelkel. Of course, all the goods have organic certificates: Bioland, Naturland, Agricultura Biologique, Demeter, Bio-Siegel, etc.

About 95 % of goods are imported by the company itself and the remaining 5 % are supplied by Russian distributors. “It is a well-known fact that organic food, due to the lack of preservatives and other chemicals, has a very short shelf-life”, says Mr Eugeniy Trostentcov, the Managing Director of Grunwald. “That's why it is very important to have a well functioning logistics chain to provide a regular supply of fresh organic products.” To solve this problem, the company has one warehouse for storage in Germany and one for distribution in Moscow.

Talking about price policy, Mr Trostentcov noted that even in Europe organic products are generally more expensive than conventional products, and that explained why prices in Grunwald were rather high. “We are trying to keep our prices at the norm for premium class supermarket chains – the overage spend in our store is about 150-200 Euros,” he said.

“On the one hand, our target consumers are people who know what organic means and why such products are good for their health. They often travel abroad and try organics, and some of them order organics directly from foreign companies,” said Mr Trostentcov. “They are mostly very rich people but, on the other hand, we think that every person wants to be, and needs to be, healthy. So we are trying to promote our ideas and ideology of organic nutrition, and we hope that the community of consumers will grow and include people with average incomes as well.”

Grunwald takes staff recruitment seriously. Anyone applying for a job has to attend special classes and pass exams to get a place in a store's team. In Mr Trostentcov’s opinion: “It is important that staff can answer any question consumers ask. Moreover, it is important that the team share the ideas of a healthy lifestyle and stick to them outside the office.”  Generally, about 45 people are working on any one shift in the store.
Staff training plays a major role too, and it is not just about theory, since staff has to be familiar with operating special equipment. For instance, since there is an in-store organic bakery, all the staff involved has been trained by Mr Siegfried Schedel (representing the company Schedel that is one of Europe’s leading suppliers of organic bread and organic bakery technologies). It is significant that all the necessary ingredients for making organic bread at home can be purchased in the store.

So, the long-awaited project has been launched. Of course, it is still early days but let’s hope its life will be long and happy!

Operator: Biomarket company
Moscow, Russia, Roublevskoye shosse, 30-1.
Web-site: www.grunwald.ru
Tel: +7 495 413 05 65
Faxe: +7 495 413 56 52
e-mail: info@bio-market.ru