The Finnish Paulig, as well as its Russian office, did not respond to RBC’s request at the time of publication.
What Paulig is known for
The Paulig company, which specializes in coffee roasting, spice production and ethnic cuisine, was founded in 1876 by the German Gustav Paulig, who moved to Finland from Germany. His company was originally engaged in the import and sale of colonial goods in the grocery store: salt, coffee, spices, flour, port, cognac.
In 1904, the company switched from wholesale to food production and opened the first coffee roasting plant in the Nordic countries in Helsinki (before that, only green coffee that was roasted at home was on sale). The company now operates in the Nordic countries, the Baltic states, the UK and Russia.
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For Paulig, Russia is a market that brings it 5.4% of revenue, the main sales – more than 53% – are in the Nordic countries, follows from the company’s 2020 report. All last year’s revenue of Paulig reached € 919.5 million (78.5 billion rubles at the weighted average exchange rate of the Central Bank for 2020), profit – € 66.7 million (5.7 billion rubles). According to RAS, the revenue of Paulig Rus LLC in 2020 amounted to RUB 4.5 billion, with a net loss of RUB 2.5 million.
How popular is the Santa Maria brand
Under the Santa Maria brand in Russia, as indicated on the brand’s website, spices, barbecue seasonings, Texas-Mexican, as well as Asian and Indian dishes were sold – in total, there were more than a hundred products in the assortment.
The brand has been around since 1946, when a small spice company was founded in the Swedish city of Gothenburg. Now this brand belongs to the Finnish family company Paulig. In the 1990s, it became one of the first companies that, after the collapse of the USSR, resumed trade relations with its old partners in the Baltic countries and opened trade offices in St. Petersburg and Moscow. At the same time, in the 1990s, products under the Santa Maria brand began to appear on the Russian market.
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Among Russian consumers, Santa Maria spices were among the ten most popular brands, according to data from the research company Euromonitor International. In the “herbs and spices” category, Santa Maria has accounted for about 3.5% of the market over the past three years, and the brand is in eighth place in popularity among Russians. The market leader for the past three years, according to Euromonitor International, was the Pripravych brand with a share of 15.1%, in second place was Kotányi with 13.3%, the five most popular brands also included Kamis (12.8%), Indana and Maggi (5.3% each). In the broader category of ingredients for cooking, which includes herbs and spices, Santa Maria was ranked 11th in popularity with a 2.4% share (leader in this category is Maggi, top 5 also includes Spice , Kotányi, Kamis and Knorr).
What’s going on with the spice market in Russia
The market for ingredients for cooking and spices in Russia has been growing since 2019, according to data from Euromonitor International. According to the forecast of his analysts, in 2021 the volume of this market will reach 49.4 billion rubles. in monetary terms or 59.5 thousand tons in kind, of which 29.2 billion rubles will be spent on herbs and spices. and 24.5 thousand tons.
A different picture is provided by the research company NielsenIQ: according to its retail audit, sales of spices in Russia for the year from October 2020 to September 2021 decreased by 0.6% in monetary terms and by 8.1% in physical terms. Sales of sauces during this period increased by 7.6% in value terms, having decreased by 3.4% in volume terms.
This decline in sales is due to the record high base of the previous year, when buyers, amid growing home consumption and cooking, were large-scale purchases of both sauces and spices, explains a spokesman for NielsenIQ. According to him, due to this effect, negative growth rates are observed in many industries of the FMCG market, but the market is “gradually recovering.”
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How foreign companies are reducing their presence in Russia
In October this year it became known that the British-Dutch concern Unilever decided to sell its Russian mayonnaise and sauces business to focus on ice cream and dry seasonings. The plant in the Tula region owned by the concern, the Baltimore brand and the rights to the Calve brand in Russia and the CIS were bought by the KDV group, a manufacturer of snacks and confectionery. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. According to INFOLine-Analytica, it could have amounted to $ 80 million, but a RBC source in the food market estimated that KDV would pay $ 45 million for production in Tula and brands.
Finnish left Russia in 2021 Atria: the company sold for 2.8 billion rubles. own sausage production “Pit Product” group “Cherkizovo”. The company began to experience difficulties in the Russian market after, against the background of the devaluation of the ruble and the rise in prices due to the anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the EU and the United States in 2014 and the reciprocal Russian food embargo, the demand of Russian consumers shifted towards more budget products, and sales of Atria fell.
This year the producer of yoghurts Fruttis and “Nezhny” – the Dutch company left the Russian market after 29 years of work. FrieslandCampina… The German company Ehrmann decided to acquire its assets in Russia. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. According to the analytical company NEO Center, the Russian business of FrieslandCampina could cost the buyer about 6.5 billion rubles.
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