Kulyochek Schastya: Tomsk bring premium chips to international market

TOMSK, Feb 24 – RIA Tomsk. Tomsk company Kulyochek Schastya (Screw of Happiness), producing dried vegetable snacks and fruit chips (fruits soaked in berry juice), entered the international market, becoming one of the suppliers of the Wildberries online store. Currently, Tomsk citizens are discussing the possibility of cooperation with one of the American retail chains.

The founder of the company Tatyana Alpet told  RIA Tomsk about the business created on Siberian berries, "grandmother's recipes" and her own passion for healthy eating.

Family traditions

About two years passed between the test box of dried fruit and the first delivery to Wildberries: in the fall of 2017 Tatyana registered Kulyochek Schastya LLC, and in October 2019 concluded a cooperation agreement with the largest international online store created in Russia.

And the whole story began with personal experience.

In childhood, Tatyana often visited her grandmother in the village. Dried vegetables and fruits were common on the kitchen table in the grandmother's house, but not traditional dried fruits, which reach the desired condition in the sun and the open air, but dried in the oven at low temperature.

Such a healthy snack – turnips, berries, zucchini, apples and everything that grew in the grandmother's garden – became a tradition for Tatyana. As an adult, she tried to find similar products in stores, but each time she found sugar and "chemicals" in the composition. Therefore, she prepared dry fruits and vegetables on her own, in the home kitchen.

And then there was a wave of universal enthusiasm for healthy eating. Somewhere in 2013-2014, dehydrators – devices for drying products at low temperatures, began to be sold in stores in large quantities. Around that time, Tatyana had the idea of ​​a business, but she took real steps in 2017.

Snacks for VIPs

"I understood that in order to make such products, I don’t need a big mind: bought, dried, sold. I needed a highlight. And I bet on unique combinations", – Tatyana says.

So there appeared dried snacks under the Kulyochek Schastya brand. By the way, this name was invented by the company team together with the slogan "Taste from childhood". The word "schastya" (happiness), written in a childish manner, should lead the buyer to the memories of treats from the grandmother's table.

But back to the snacks. These are peculiar dried mixes from, for example, tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini, sprinkled with sea salt.

"Not only tasty, but also beautiful, – Tatyana comments. – Our products are ordered for gifts to high-ranking officials. Or for important rauts. For example, in 2018, EU ambassadors arrived in Tomsk, so at the governor's reception our unique snacks were on the tables".

Another invention of the Tomsk company – are fruit chips. These are apples soaked in the juice of Siberian berries, and then dried at 40 degrees. Compliance with the technology allows to preserve the bright colors of the fruit chips without addition of dyes.

"Our hit lately – is dried horseradish. They just swept it off the shelves. We developed a recipe for its manufacture experimentally. If it isn't success", – shares the owner of the company.

She calls "work of art" apple chips with cedar cones. "Other companies use pine cones, and we use cedar cones. A person who lives in a cedar grove 200 kilometers from Tomsk collects cones. He makes cone jam on Altai honey, brings us, and we soak the apples using technology, put the cone on top and dry.

Issue price

"How did we come up with all this? Yes, we just love to eat tasty food, and we don’t want to get fat, – Tatyana jokes. And then the dominance of everything "chemical" in stores makes us think about our modern food traditions. We just want the children and adults knew that natural treats could be as tasty as "chemical" foods".

The company sold its products from the first days of its existence through social networks, at fairs and city markets, and also opened a store at the Tomsk airport. Things were going well, which forced competitors to take a closer look at the newcomer to the market.

"One of the large manufacturers launched similar products on the market. But upon closer examination, it became clear that sugar and "chemicals" are used there. Our competitive advantage – is only natural ingredients and manual labor. Therefore, the products are expensive. We are talking about premium class".

Screw of Happiness is really not cheap. For example, for a minimum wage (and in the Tomsk region it is slightly less than 16 thousand rubles), it is possible to buy 5-6 sets of dried fruits and vegetables in boxes.

However, the high price tag does not deter buyers. In the fall of 2019, the company became one of the suppliers of Wildberries, and literally in the first weeks it became clear that the products were dispersing at a fast pace.

Production of Kulyochek Schastya is located in the village of Petukhovo near Tomsk. Only a few people work in the workshop.

"We concentrated on orders from Wildberries. We closed the store at the Tomsk airport, the main sales are carried out via the Internet. Our boxes and bags flew to retail customers in America, Australia, many orders come from central part of Russia", – says Tatyana.

Speaking about plans for 2020, she notes that the maximum task – is to talk about the Tomsk "dried happiness" in China, where there are potentially large wholesale customers. In addition, a distribution network from the USA became interested in products. Currently, Americans and Tomsk citizens are discussing the terms of a possible partnership.

"Now this is the main business for me. Before that, there was a knitting business, and it was very successful – I eat high on the hog. But for the sake of "Kulyochek" I left everything. This is real happiness", – the owner of the company sums up.