How and where do seafood delicacies come to Moscow
Many companies sell caviar, scallops, red fish and other seafood in Moscow. But Mikhail Demyanenko, an entrepreneur from Komsomolsk-on-Amur, did not see much competition in this - and founded his own project in the capital with the sonorous name "Lord of the Seas". He is personally acquainted with most of his clients, and new customers come from the recommendations of friends and acquaintances. Mikhail Demyanenko told the website about how to succeed in a competitive market using an individual approach.
Mikhail Demyanenko, 36, an entrepreneur from Moscow, founder of a seafood company. Financier by education (specialist in non-profit organizations). For 6 years he managed a credit cooperative in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Own project The Lord of the Seas was founded in 2014 in Moscow.
From finance to seafood
Entrepreneur Mikhail Demyanenko ran his own financial company in Komsomolsk-on-Amur until 2014. At work, he often went to conferences, where he talked with people from other cities. So he made dozens of acquaintances all over Russia. They all knew that Mikhail lived in the Far East, and every year many of them asked to send them red caviar for the New Year holidays.
After the 2014 crisis, investors began to withdraw funds from Demyanenko's company, after which it went bankrupt. Mikhail never saw the prospects for financial business in the small Komsomolsk-on-Amur. He considered the most realistic option for further activities to supply caviar and other seafood to Moscow.
Mikhail had not been involved in the supply of fish, except for New Year's orders to his friends from other cities. But he had friends in the Far East who worked in this area. One of them supplied him with a 600-kilogram consignment of red caviar for sale. Mikhail did not have to invest in this delivery - the partners agreed on the calculation as sales progressed. All caviar was obtained officially, all the necessary documents were available for it.
At the end of November 2014, Mikhail brought all the caviar to Moscow. Air transportation of cargo cost about 25,000 rubles - almost the same as a ticket (at that time the cost of air transportation was much lower, now the transportation of the same batch of caviar would cost about 100,000 rubles).
Mikhail decided to sell caviar in the capital to his Facebook friends. Before arriving, he sent out about 300 offers for the sale of caviar. In the first week, they bought about 70 kg of caviar from Mikhail. The first buyers started recommending it to their friends. During his three weeks in Moscow in December 2014, he managed to sell more than half of the batch via Facebook. Mikhail realized that there was a demand for the delicacy, and decided to add other types of seafood and fish to his offer.
“In Moscow, I went to shops selling fish. I studied the offers in online stores - what and how much they sell, of what quality. I realized that with the fish here a big problem, the niche is not bad, you can work in it, ”says Mikhail Demyanenko.
He decided to call his new project "Lord of the Seas". Mikhail strove to find a loud and memorable name. In addition, to some extent, it contains a family history: the surname of Mikhail's grandfather is Vladyko.
More fish, good and different
In January 2015, Mikhail personally selected a batch of crabs, scallops, shrimps and other delicacies in the Far East. And two weeks later I met the cargo in Moscow. He sent a proposal for new types of seafood to the same database on Facebook. They managed to sell everything within a month. In February 2016, revenue amounted to about 800,000 rubles.
Then Demyanenko began to form parties remotely, without coming to the Far East. The cargo was sent to him from there by his confidants. Fish also appeared in his assortment. Mikhail began to buy it from Moscow wholesalers. The fish of the "Lord of the Seas" is not only Far Eastern, some species come from Murmansk, as well as from other cities and countries.
After the sale of the first batches, Mikhail decided to master the production of fish cooking. By that time, he realized that not everyone needs raw fish. Many people do not like or do not want to cook fish, not everyone has time for this.
“I once promised that I would never get into public catering. But when I wanted hot smoked fish, I bought mackerel and got poisoned. After that, I realized that processed fish in Moscow cannot be eaten at all. I assembled my first smokehouse in a cottage near Moscow, where I lived at that time, and began to master pickling and smoking, ”recalls the founder of“ Lord of the Seas ”.
Rare Ambassador
To offer his Moscow clients something special, Demyanenko learned how to cook herring and salmon using the dry salting method. He claims that this method is almost never used in Moscow.
“To make dry-cured fish on a production scale requires a lot of work surfaces. There should be a spacious workshop where fish can be laid out, salted and dried in the same place. On a production scale, all fish are salted with brine. But with this method, it is difficult to maintain the same level of salting: the fish may be undersalted or oversalted, ”explains Mikhail.
Before smoking, the fish is dipped in salt, while the processing time and technology depend on the size of the fish. Salmon weighing 7-8 kg takes about 18 hours. During this time, it is salted by about a third. When the fish is in the refrigerator "ripening", the salt is evenly distributed throughout the thickness of the entire layer. As a result, the fish is lightly salted, dense, without foreign tastes.
Since the summer of 2017, Mikhail has been smoking fish at one of the Moscow enterprises, which has the necessary equipment. At the same time, he himself makes salting of each batch of fish and controls its smoking.
“This cannot be called industrial production. It is rather hand-made. I can say I know the name of each fish. By by and large, this is the only way I can be sure of the quality, ”says Mikhail.
Issue price
Now the range of "Lord of the Seas" is about 90 types of products. The most popular positions are lightly salted salmon and homemade herring. Dry salted salmon costs about 2,200 rubles per kilogram, herring - about 500 rubles. Now they bring in more revenue than caviar. In third place in sales is frozen and chilled fish, its price - from 250 to 1500 rubles per kilogram.
“There is an opinion that fish is expensive. But fish can be different - 200 and 3000 rubles per kilogram. In fact, you can pick it up within your income and include it in your regular diet. Of the same cod fish cod costs 600 rubles per kilogram, and navaga - 250. This is the same group of fish, and, in the opinion of many, navaga is even tastier, ”says Mikhail.
Seafood delicacies are also in demand: oysters, crabs, mussels, shrimps. A kilogram of such products costs from 500 to 1800 rubles. The most expensive offers - Kamchatka crab and seaside scallop - are sold for 2300-2700 rubles per kilogram. Mikhail sells red caviar at 4400 rubles per kilogram.
The average bill for one purchase is 5000-8000 rubles. Free delivery for orders over 5,000 rubles. If the total purchase amount is more than 10,000 rubles, small wholesale discounts apply: prices are 15-20% lower than usual. To get this discount, customers often team up and place a common order.
Natural factors also affect the cost of fish and seafood. For example, in 2017, pink and chum salmon were caught less than in 2016. Accordingly, there was less caviar. Therefore, the prices for fish and caviar have risen sharply. A year ago, the wholesale price for red caviar in Moscow was 2600-2800 rubles per kilogram, this year - 3500-3700 rubles.
Seafood is supplied to Moscow, as a rule, in two ways. Delicacies arrive by plane, the cost of this delivery method is 150-200 rubles per kilogram. The fish is usually transported in 40-ton trucks. As a rule, they are loaded “to the eyeballs” - such a machine can hold 22 tons of products. Since the summer of 2017, a courier company has been delivering seafood for "Lord of the Seas". Mikhail controls the delivery and delivers some orders himself.
In Moscow, "Vladyka of the Seas" has eight suppliers. It is unrealistic to do with the services of one or two companies - each supplier provides different types products. “Each type of fish has its own catching seasons. Therefore, no supplier, even a large one, can bring the entire assortment. In some, the fishery is set up only for chum salmon, for others - only for herring. The regions of the catch also differ. When I go to mining enterprises, I find out which of the Moscow suppliers they work with. And then I contact him and agree on cooperation, ”says Mikhail.
Who buys seafood
About 80% of “Lord of the Seas” buyers are women. Most buyers are between 28 and 45 years old. In terms of income, clients are very different: from people with low incomes to those who send a personal driver for orders.
Every month Mikhail Demyanenko receives about 120-130 orders. Before the New Year, there are much more buyers. In December 2017, sales quadrupled compared to the “regular” months.
There are a lot of regular customers. Some of them make purchases from Mikhail on a monthly basis. But most make orders no more than once or twice a year - for example, before the New Year.
“It is a big misconception that a business can develop only at the expense of regular customers. If the business grows, then only on the inflow of new buyers. There are a lot of them, too, mainly on the basis of recommendations, ”Mikhail notes.
Parties as a promotion tool
Until December 2017, the "Lord of the Seas" company sold fish only through Facebook - on company page and personal page Mikhail Demyanenko, who has about 5,000 subscribers. It is curious that it was she who brought the project the most clients.
“I do not have a sales department, I, in fact, do not do sales and do not look for clients. Fences and sundresses work best in Russia. The highest quality clients are those who came from recommendations. Many companies run marketing gimmicks to get people to bring in acquaintances. Everything comes naturally to me. People try it, they like the product, they recommend it to their friends, ”says Mikhail.
At the end of 2017, the "Lord of the Seas" project got its own website, which functions as an online store. Now the main flow of orders goes through the site. But it has not yet been possible to transfer all orders from social networks and messengers to the site.
“Applications came through Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, WhatsApp. Anyone where it is convenient - they write there. I thought that I would make a website, and everyone would send applications to it. Nothing like this! Everyone, as they are accustomed to calling or writing to me personally, continues to do it persistently. No matter how much you want to collect all communications on one channel, you are forced to communicate in a way that is convenient for the client, ”says Mikhail Demyanenko.
One of the ways to offer customers new types of seafood has become culinary parties. Mikhail held the first such event in September 2017 at the Moscow Hippodrome. On it, the founder of the "Lord of the Seas" gave a culinary master class on cooking paella, after which everyone could taste the dish. According to Mikhail Demyanenko, 100 kilograms of seafood paella were “swept away almost instantly”.
In February 2018, the second such gastronomic party took place - this time in one of the towers of Moscow City. A ticket for it cost about 4,000 rubles. Mikhail showed how to cut and salt salmon, after which the salted fish was put up for auction. The winner gave 35,000 rubles for it.
“The ticket price doesn't allow me to profit from the parties. My goal is to feed the guests within the ticket price and show them to the maximum what I can do, ”says Mikhail.
Two such parties were attended by about 200 people. Of these, about 80% of the guests were not clients of the "Lord of the Seas". Through these events, they can learn more about the project, and most importantly, taste its fish and seafood. In addition, parties bring Mikhail orders for catering. He plans to continue holding two or three such events a year.
“They started inviting me to corporate parties so that I could make a menu and prepare seafood dishes for 25-30 people. It's profitable for me: I use my ingredients, plus I get paid for the work of the cook. After a party in the City, I have already hosted several of these banquets. I also host dinner parties once a week at my home in the Begovaya metro area. I have a large kitchen that can accommodate about 10 people. You can visit such a dinner for 2,000 rubles, the amount includes 5 dishes. This is essentially networking - people from different spheres get to know each other, eat, exchange contacts, ”says Mikhail.
Work with clients
The Lord of the Seas business model is based on personal communication with clients. In the first year and a half, the founder of the project himself was engaged in delivery - he knew all his customers by sight. And now he continues to communicate with many of them personally. He advises his clients not only on the purchase, but also on the preparation of fish. Mikhail, along with the order, sends recipes for fish dishes, advises or adds seasonings to the order. If new items appear on the menu, they are sent "for trial" to regular customers.
"They don't treat me like a regular online store, but like an acquaintance or even a friend."
“If in a regular store, for example, there are problems with delivery, the client can raise a scandal. And I have a “my boyfriend effect”. Even if I mess up somewhere, I can call or write, apologize, postpone delivery. As a rule, clients perceive such rare cases with understanding, ”says Mikhail.
Demyanenko has no plans to sell his fish through stores and supermarkets. In his opinion, in this case, the profit per unit of goods will decrease, and the difficulties in working with clients will become much greater.
“For some reason, many people think that they need to get into retail, on store shelves. In fact, when you buy in bulk and sell at retail, you have the maximum trade markup from the end customer. And this client will be grateful to you more than any legal entity. The store will look for where to buy 10 rubles cheaper. And it is difficult to get money from it - the networks practice deferred payments. And a private client is ready to pay more - for service, good attitude, conversation, history of the project, "Mikhail is sure.
Mikhail does not set himself the goal of dramatically increasing the volume of supplies. First, if you work with small batches, you are more likely to get quality fish. But the main thing is that large deliveries will require a different scheme of working with clients, in which there will be much less personal involvement. And the founder of "Lord of the Seas" does not want to lose the advantage of personal contact.
“I do not perceive my project as“ business for the sake of business ”. Money is important, but the human moment is more valuable to me. For 2-3 years I have developed a customer base, and my customers reciprocate. Many people have followed my fish business on Facebook from the very beginning, they feel like a part of this project. It turned out to build a system that is difficult to scale. But at the same time it is impossible to copy it and take away buyers. I can only lose clients if I start to work worse, ”Demyanenko believes.
Until the end of 2017, Mikhail worked without the involvement of personnel. Before the New Year, he hired an employee to help fill the site and communicate with clients.
“An ordinary company has staff - from the director to the storekeepers. All their tasks are scheduled. And I am a Shvets, and a reaper, and a gamer on a pipe. I am an artisan, not a business. This is both a problem and an advantage for me. Clients communicate directly with me, and I know almost all clients. If you look into history, since ancient times, people bought food only from "their" proven butchers, milkmen, bakers. And it turns out that I am a fishmonger for my clients, ”says Mikhail Demyanenko.
Food is an incredibly common commodity. It is produced by thousands of enterprises. And even more outlets are occupied with the sale of such goods. It would seem that a beginner in this business has nothing to do. There is simply no free space on the market. As the saying goes, what's the point of starting a business in an already crowded place? There is logic, isn't it? But the reality is that food, while one of the most common commodities, is also incredibly in demand.
No economic or any other crises are capable of hindering food producers and sellers. People have always ate, eat, and will eat. Because food is vital for the existence of any person. Without exception. A person can live without shelter, without clothes. But he can never live without food.
In today's post, we will talk about the production of such a popular food product as. We will consider such important questions, such as searching for premises, studying the market, purchasing equipment, the production process and, of course, the ways of selling the finished product. Further details about each item.
Start a business by studying the market and target audience
It is extremely important point... Fish is not pork, chicken or beef. This product is much more diverse. Every country, every region, even every city has its own preferences. Residents of one city love herring, while in another they prefer carp or crucian carp. And in the third, they generally feed exclusively on salmon and trout.
As a rule, all these preferences, first of all, depend on the region and on what kind of fish lives in local waters. Or what kind of fish is raised on nearby farms. Be that as it may, and whatever the reasons for all this, it is very, very important to take into account the interests of the target audience of customers in the fish smoking business.
How to study the demand for a particular fish? Very simple. Walk through the big ones. Examine the counters. What fish are prevalent in local retail outlets? Surely it is this fish that is most popular among local residents... Watch the buyers themselves. What do they buy more often? What kind of fish are you interested in? Where are the longest queues. Study the sections with smoked fish separately.
The knowledge gained in this way will be enough to understand which fish should be smoked in the first place, and which one can be discarded at first. After conducting marketing research, you can start organizing your business.
Selection of premises for a smoking workshop
As it comes on the production of food, then a number of requirements are imposed on the premises. You can find out more about them by contacting the relevant authorities. Among the inspection and regulatory bodies you will have to deal with are the Sanitary and Epidemiological Station, the Veterinary Service, Rostekhnadzor and Rosprirodnadzor, as well as the Fire Service (Ministry of Emergency Situations).
One of the most important requirements is that your production facility should be no closer than 300 meters from any residential facility. This creates a number of difficulties in finding a suitable building. Commercial real estate objects on the outskirts of the city or in general outside the city can be good options.
A former production facility that already produced food products might be a good choice. Or any former catering establishment (cafe, restaurant, canteen). As a rule, such objects have already been tested several times. Therefore, by choosing them, you will simplify your life and work.
As for the area of production and storage facilities, then it all depends specifically on your situation. The larger the volume of production, the more space is needed. It's simple.
Shop equipment for fish smoking
You will need a smokehouse. Which ones and how much depends on the volume of production. You will also need two industrial refrigerators. The first is for storing fresh or frozen fish. The second is for storing finished products (smoked fish).
Naturally, you will need other pieces of furniture, dishes and equipment. Tables, cabinets, knives, various basins, etc. If you are going to produce vacuum-packed smoked fish, you will also need to buy a packing machine.
Directly the process of smoking fish
Here you will need the equipment we mentioned above, several workers and, of course, raw materials. You need to go over the last point in more detail.
The first point is fish. Ideally, you should only use fresh or chilled fish in your production. No frozen food. When buying a batch of frozen raw materials, you cannot assess the quality of the fish. And yet you cannot accurately estimate it. real weight... Water can be either 10 or 50%.
Hence the conclusion - smoke the fish that live or are grown artificially in local waters. Yes, sometimes you want to offer the consumer something unusual, exotic, not like everyone else's. But so far, due to the size of our country and the underdevelopment of the transport system, this is not the best option. It is better to smoke the more familiar fish, but on the other hand, it will be of the highest quality.
The second important point is the smoking method. And this key moment in this business. Many of today's producers do not smoke fish. in the classic way as well with the help of various chemicals. Naturally, this does not in the best way affect the benefits and taste of the finished product.
This is where you can stand out if you smoke fish in the traditional "old-fashioned" way - with the help of real smoke. And for the smoke you will use the wood of the fruit trees. Yes, it makes production more expensive. And your fish will cost a little more. But its unmatched taste and aroma will do the job. Having tasted once, though expensive, but really real smoked fish, the client will come back to you again and again.
About distribution channels
If you want to get the maximum profit and monitor the quality of the smoked fish sold by your production, then the best option will be the opening of your own retail outlet. Maybe even a whole store of smoked fish (and what? Sounds!).
If there is no such desire, and indeed - you want to start making a profit faster, then working with large retail stores would be a good option. Sign supply contracts with them and start working. That's all. We wish you every success!
Most businessmen are men. Lots of men love and go fishing. Continuing the logical sequence, your own fish industry is a very attractive business. Is it so? What kind of fish is better to breed in our conditions and what pitfalls can lie in wait for us in this matter?
What is more profitable - carp or trout?
Anyone who decides to start his own "fish" business, first of all, will need to decide what kind of fish he will breed. We'll have to choose one - either carp or trout.
These types of fish grow well and are constantly in demand among buyers. Actually, the technology of fish farming on the farm will depend on this choice.
If opportunities permit, you can do carp, trout, and much more. Every year the farm sells about 1100 tons of live fish, of which only 500-600 tons are grown directly in our fish farm - the rest is imported from other fish farms for subsequent sale. In addition, we breed fish on rented reservoirs in the southern regions, arrange paid fishing, we are engaged in fish processing - smoking, canning and others. Such a scale, of course, is not available to a novice fish farmer.
It's easier, of course, to grow carp. It is unpretentious, tenacious and many different reservoirs are suitable. To understand the technology of carp breeding, you do not need to graduate from the academy with a degree in Fish Farming, it is enough to familiarize yourself with publicly available information or read books. On the market, at almost the same cost, a capricious and sensitive trout costs almost three times as much. But, in this case, you will have to hire a qualified fish breeder: education and experience are needed here.
This season, the market has developed low wholesale prices for live fish. Trout has dropped in price, carp is inexpensive. And yet, fish farming remains profitable. The profitability of the fish processing plant is less than ten percent today. And the farmer " middle hand"which does not pay for the maintenance of any rather large infrastructure, the profit rate is even higher. Fish farming is attractive because agricultural enterprises, including fish farms, have switched to a single agricultural tax. Now they pay the state only six percent of income, excluding VAT, income tax, social tax and property tax.
"Climate" for fish
The health and growth of fish are determined by two main factors - the temperature of the water and its saturation with oxygen. In addition, the state of the entire biological system of the reservoir is important, for example, acidity (pH), etc. It is possible only for specialists to determine whether a pond is suitable for fish farming. Therefore, before stocking a reservoir, it is advised to make the so-called "fish-biological justification". It is advisable to carry out this survey four times a year - in summer, winter, spring, autumn.
For trout, the optimum water temperature is +16 +19 C, but if the pond warms up to +24 C, then the fish will stop feeding and may die. Trout are kept in a quarry 15 meters deep, and already at a depth of 4 meters, the water temperature, even in the heat, never rises above +16 C. Therefore, almost all fish farms that breed trout are organized on cold rivers, or they collect water from rivers or artesian wells.
With carp breeding, everything is easier. The main thing is that the pond should not be contaminated with any garbage, dirty drains, various oil products, decomposing organic matter and should warm up well (the optimum temperature is +24 +25 C). The depth of the pond can be small - up to 2 meters. At such a depth, the natural food base is actively developing.
All of Russia is divided into fish farming zones. The Moscow region belongs to the first and second zones. Southern regions - for example, Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories - by the fifth or sixth. It is much more profitable to breed fish in them (southern regions), since the vegetation period is longer, during which the fish actively feeds and grows. If all the technology is correctly built and a suitable reservoir is selected, then fish farming can be made quite profitable in the middle lane.
A pond with an area of 5-6 hectares is enough for the reproduction of about 10 tons of carp. It is noteworthy that the larger the reservoir, the easier it is to breed fish. A small reservoir is more difficult to exploit, since it cools down quickly and heats up quickly, and it has a complex hydrochemical regime. In a large pond, the temperature regime is more even, which is favorable for fish.
It is encouraged that the carp reservoir was a drainage: this greatly facilitates the process of catching in the fall. For this, a dam is built if the pond is formed by a dam on the river.
Most people mistakenly believe that it is enough to run the fish into a pond, it will grow by itself and then only need to be caught and sold. This is wrong! Fish farming is a difficult and risky undertaking.
Food
The main expense of the fishery is feed. This expense item eats up more than half of all expenses. You can, of course, run the fish into the reservoir and wait until it grows up on its natural food base. This will take a very long time. At the same time, no more than 125 kg can be obtained from 1 hectare of the reservoir. fish. But if you grow fish using a high-intensity method and do everything right, you can get more than two tons of fish per hectare. The main ingredients of the method are high stocking density and high-protein nutritious feed with protein and fat content. These feeds are more efficient, but they are more expensive than compound feeds. Average price of carp feed, about 10 rubles. per kg.
It is more expensive and more difficult to feed trout, because high-quality German feed is purchased for her, the price is about 1 euro per kg. In Russia, extruded feed of this level is produced only by one plant in Sergiev Posad. If the trout is fed with conventional compound feed, then it will have white meat. The consumer is used to red. And it can only be obtained using special feed additives - kartinoids obtained from krill.
A significant difference in the price of carp and trout feeds is smoothed out by the amount of feed required for their fattening, and the final sale price of fish. Spending only 1 kg of feed for trout, you can get an increase in fish weight by almost the same kilogram. In a kilogram of carp weight gain, almost 3-4 kilograms of feed will have to be added. Therefore, in the end, the cost of feed for growing 1 kg. carp are about 30 rubles, and trout - a little more.