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The company has launched a new candy production line in Naberezhnyye Chelny. Last week, the red ribbon was cut by Leonid Baryshev, General Director of Essen Production AG JSC.

The new line has started producing chewy caramel. Dmitry Zhirnov, the Deputy General Director of Confectionery Production, introduced journalists to the candy production process. A “BV” reporter also visited the production site.

In the kingdom of sweets

The mix from which the candies are made is viscous and flexible. Special guides pull it out into an endless thread that is finally cut and wrapped by a packing machine. To configure the equipment to prevent the thread breaking has required the efforts of several technologists working for over a month.

The production of each type of sweet has its own nuances. So, wafer bars (here they are manufactured under the “Da, yozh!” brand) require special filling, which should not be too moist, so that the wafers in the finished products remain crisp. The preparation of such fillings requires special equipment; actually, it requires a whole laboratory, where the proportions of all the ingredients are regulated with great precision.

Jelly candy shapes are molded in specially pressed starch placed in wooden molds. In confectionery production, wood is used very rarely and is subject to special requirements to ensure that no splinters can occur. That is why all such molds are made of beech.

Separate production lines manufacture ball-shaped chocolate candies with fillings. The molds are made of silicone and sealed with magnets.

Formula for growth

— We hope to become one of the top five confectionery manufacturers in Russia, — Leonid Baryshev, the company’s General Director said about the company’s goal at a press conference dedicated to the launch of the new production line. — And to do that, we will need to invest 2 billion rubles annually into production over five years.

According to the company’s Director, the Russian confectionery market is currently stagnating. At present, no other large market player is investing in production, so that is why Essen Production AG has chosen a very opportune time to invest. All its competitors have either completed their investment projects or are in the process of completing them and hence won’t be changing their strategies. So, the company will gain a real advantage by launching its new equipment at this particular time.

— We have predicted what candies Russians will be eating in 2025. That’s why we are investing in equipment that other companies are not currently buying. And the candies we will bring to the market will be different from the ones already being sold. We estimate that we will have enough time, so that, in the next 5 years we will catch up with the market leaders in terms of capacity to enable us to compete with them, — Leonid Baryshev explained.

What is of concern for European confectioners?

While healthy lifestyle followers are discussing what is worse for health — sugar or sugar substitutes, Essen Production AG is paying attention to another important ingredient, i.e. confectionery fats. The requirements as to their quality may undergo significant changes. In European countries, a transition to a new level in this field took place about 3 years ago, and it can be expected that these changes will come to Russia soon.

— Already today, there is a norm for the quality of the fats that each company will require its confectioners to meet in the future. While, 10 years ago, it was possible to make a fortune producing cheap wafers without even considering the content of the filling, now that time has passed. We are oriented not simply toward what Russian manufacturers can offer. All the innovations are being made in western laboratories and we are now oriented toward the use of those new fats, — the company’s General Director explained.

Today, as Leonid Baryshev told us, Essen Production AG is working in this direction in association with the company, Efko. “We are providing them with a market they are ready to enter today”, he noted.

With regard to the requirements as to sugar content, the company is primarily oriented at consumers’ preferences. So, to export products, particularly to China, we produce sweets with less sugar. The point is that it’s not customary for Chinese to eat sweets when drinking tea: in China, sweets are actually a separate dish. That’s why, to Chinese consumers, the Russian candies seem too sweet. If Russians also like these new products, we will also sell the sweets with lower sugar content on the domestic market.

Today, Essen Production supplies its products to 34 countries around the world. The export share in the total volume of confectionery product sales amounts to 15%. Candies made in Naberezhnyye Chelny are supplied to Kazakhstan, Turkmenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Israel and Vietnam, with smaller volumes even going to the USA.

A surprise for 2020

— 5 production lines that are unrivaled both in Russia and the rest of the world are currently under development. No other company can boil down pastila like we do. And we aim to be able to boil it down without using any additives, therefore making it a completely organic product, — Leonid Baryshev said.

According to him, representatives of the German companies supplying the equipment were very surprised when Essen Production AG stated in its terms of reference the parameters for the production lines it needed. For the plant in Naberezhnyye Chelny foreign suppliers have developed a unique technological solution, allowing Essen to produce snacks with enriched grain structure and a lower sugar content.

— We are not quite ready to present this brand to the public yet. In August 2020 we will launch 4 new production lines, details of which are currently being kept secret, — Leonid Baryshev explained.

China is a delicate matter

In his answer to the “BV” reporter’s question — “what are the preferences of foreign consumers and how difficult is it to enter foreign markets” the company’s General Director said that such preferences sometimes change very rapidly and are hard to forecast.

— A recent exhibition in China has shown how quickly Chinese consumers’ orientation can change. The formula we have developed for the Chinese market requires slightly different equipment, and the existing production lines are not always suitable for manufacturing such products. The Chinese consumers want the chewy candies to consist of 70% milk. And that means that another crystallization stage must be provided to make these. We need to buy a separate production line to manufacture these products, — he said.

It’s not easy to guess what foreign consumers will want to see on their dining tables in a year’s time.

— Our main efforts will be aimed at the domestic market. We have to reimburse the funds spent in rubles, not in yuans, — Leonid Baryshev noted. — The Chinese market is a new one for the Russian confectionery industry. At the moment, the chocolate market share there is very small. And if each Chinese consumer were to want even just half the chocolate that Russians consume, there would not be enough cocoa beans in the world to meet the demand. We are taking part in all the exhibitions and are studying the preferences of Chinese consumers. The first time we visited such an exhibition was 3 years ago. But, you know, they are really cautious guys. There is a lot of work ahead of us, including testing supplies and sales, mainly online. That’s why the Russian market remains our priority.

Peculiarities of the domestic market

According to Leonid Baryshev, accessing the domestic market and retail networks is actually a challenge for a confectionery company.

— Today, retailers are oriented at consolidation. It’s difficult for a new brand to get shelf-space in a large retail network, — Leonid Baryshev stressed.

With regard to each retail network, Essen Production carries out an accurate analysis of demand, and offers products that meet the interests of the consumers of a specific retail network. “Today, the company’s geographical expansion directly depends on the expansion of the federal trade networks”, he noted.

To become successful, a confectionery company has to offer original products that are unrivalled in the marketplace.

— When we were building the plant we understood that, at first, we would have to push against the flow, and then, when we had gained a stable foothold in the market, each new production line would strengthen our position. We need to invest 2 billion rubles every year for the next 5 years, and then we will be ready to look further into the new horizons, — Leonid Baryshev concluded.