New organic shop revolutionizes Moscow´s natural retail

Organic products appear and flare up like stars in the stocks of supermarkets, pharmacies, grocery boutiques, internet stores, and even fitness club bars. I will even go as far as to say, “The progress of organics in Russia is relentless!” Slowly but surely, organics are finding their way into the hearts and, I dare to say, into the stomachs of consumers. Not long ago, on the 12th of July, 2005, a store appeared on Moscow’s product horizon: a completely new and probably the largest constellation for those days called “The Real Food Store”, where organic products make up the majority of the stock.

Picture: The Fushi Bar in Moscow

The Fushi bar shines out as the jewel in the crown of this constellation: its menu includes freshly squeezed juices and herbal remedies prepared with natural ingredients, most of which are from the organic category. The lovely store, 45 m² of space for retail as well as the Fushi bar, was placed in the very centre of old Moscow not far from the central stations of the Moscow underground in an area that is well-known among Muscovites as an art district. Besides old buildings that are used now for offices, there are also such famous places as the Moscow State Conservatory, the Mayakovsky Theatre, some sections of Moscow State University and a wide range of very expensive stores.

The owner of the store and bar is young, but already well known for his fashionable clothing company Garderob. During the four years of its existence, it has acquired several regular clients, who are always on the look-out for the company's new ideas. One such idea was the creation of “Good Nutrition Stop” which includes a store with organic products and a Fushi bar. The appearance of such a project was to a certain extent typical, because this kind of  lifestyle is becoming increasingly popular and fashionable among modern affluent citizens—and who better than a navigator in the fashion world to realize it? In addition to this, the company management not only shared the ideas of healthy food but are adherents of organics. In this way, fashionable clothing was united with fashionable and healthy food.

“Opening the ‘Real Food Store’ was not only the first step to promoting the health of our customers but also possibly our small contribution to the health of the nation, because right now it is relevant and therefore popular,” says Andrei Kolesnikov, the PR manager for the company Garderob. The result of this cooperation was the opening in the centre of Moscow of a small but comfortable organic products store within which there is a small Fushi bar. The store is located next to two clothing boutiques which belong to the company in the basement of a building on Bolshaya Nikitskaya (an old street leading to the Kremlin walls).

The store has a relaxed atmosphere which is conducive to the unhurried selection and purchasing of products. The variety of  goods leads to customers making a careful study of all the products presented in the store, most of which are really unusual. It is gratifying that almost all such products are accompanied by colour brochures explaining the properties and quality of the goods as well as introducing the best recipes to use them in. You could easily create a small library from the POS materials available in which visitors can find information about what organic means, why such products are valued so highly in the rest of the world, and why the price is different from traditional products. As well as this, by reading different informational booklets and leaflets, it is not hard to find out about the healing properties of the various products and the benefits and effects on the body of different herbs.

90 % of the store’s stock consists of certified organic products and includes more than 500 items from fresh vegetables to cosmetics and cleaning products. Most products (about 85-95 %) are imported, except for fresh seasonal items such as greens. These are carefully grown on a small private farm belonging to the company. These goods are brought to the store by the farmers themselves. A large range of imported goods consists of grocery products: canned goods, traditional and ethnic grains previously unknown to Russian consumers, about thirty different oils—from olive to palm oils, tea, coffee, many  types of honey, including manuka honey—a tea tree growing on the shores of New Zealand, agave nectar, and a large selection of nuts, including pecans and macadamia nuts.  For those with a sweet tooth, there are chocolates, cookies, goods baked without flour and gluten or with a low gluten index, fig balls, sticks of candy, etc.

The cosmetics and cleaning products deserve separate attention—most of the products are also certified as organic - among them such brands as Fushi, Juice beauty, Jo wood, Taer, Urtekram.. The cleaning products section is especially interesting: not one of them has chemical components, only plant extracts and oils which do not cause skin irritation when they are used.

The company carries out its deliveries independently. As they are importers of premium products, these are mainly goods from leading European and American manufacturers. Living Tree Community Foods (California, USA), Organic Meridian (England), and Fushi (England) are among the store’s suppliers. The company also owns a small farm where, following organic production standards, vegetables, greens and wheat-germ are grown. Wheat-germ is one of the most important items for the bar, because wheat-grass juice is made out of it. “Production based on ecological standards certainly increases the price of the product, but that does not scare us, because we are not trying to produce quantity at the expense of quality,” says Mr. Kolesnikov.

The placement of the Fushi bar is interesting. The name Fushi comes from Japanese and means "eternal life" ,which works well with the concept of this English trade mark underlying which is the Indian philosophy of reaching absolute health by the means of  simple and natural solutions for problems arising from the modern lifestyle. The Fushi company specializes in opening bars which, in addition to fresh natural juices, offer products from medicinal herbs and cosmetics for taking care of the body. It is interesting that the overcoming of the traditional fears of western companies in relation to the Russian market which arose in obtaining a franchise for a Fushi bar was made possible through the positive reputation which already existed in other countries of the company Garderob as a serious fashion clothes operator. The store already has repeat clients – about 23-25 people a day. Among them are employees of near-by offices, who come to buy something to eat, and also those buying groceries for home who spend a significant amount of money. The average bill is about 900 roubles – that is about 27 Euros.

“Certainly, it is too early to talk about steady trends, but it is great that we have repeat customers,” says Mr. Kolesnikov. It is interesting that the prices in the store are relatively low if compared with others shops that have organic products in their range. “We did not try to turn our store and bar into a place for a select group of people because of excessively high prices,” comments Mr. Kolesnikov, “although, in general, the costliness of certain products is justifiable. In one of our brochures, there is an article entitled “How to Evaluate the Effort?” where it is described in detail why organic products are more expensive than traditional ones.  As a matter of fact, they cannot cost less because of their methods of their production,” he concludes.

In spite of the fact that many of the visitors who come to the store and bar are already fairly well informed about what organic products are all about, the company pays a lot of attention to training their personnel. The sales staff consists of six people. The main personnel of the Fushi bar were trained in London, and the other staff members were trained in Moscow. “We have paid close attention to training personnel, because sales staff are the face of the company, and if they cannot answer customer questions who can?” Mr. Kolesnikov comments. The company pays attention not only to promoting organic products, but also to popularizing a healthy lifestyle.  For this reason, alongside traditional advertisements, special events are organised in the store. One of these will be a “Detox Week” in the framework of which visitors will be told about what detox is, as well as being introduced to products and juices which clean the body.

Like many other young companies, Garderob has big plans for the future:  broadening  the stock and opening new stores like the first one. But for the moment, in Mr. Kolesnikov’s opinion, “It is necessary for people to understand what organic means: understand how great, tasty and how good for you it is; and when this happens we can think about expanding.”
In spite of the fact that the organic sector is still at a formative stage and everyone knows how daunting and hard it is to be in the forefront, the company looks to the future with optimism. “I think that when you approach the task with lots of responsibility and love, and devote all your strength or resources to the development of the company and going in a specific direction, success is guaranteed!” says Mr. Kolesnikov.

Contact adress:

Moscow, Bolshaya Nikitskaya 24/6, +7 495 202 17 57.