The FINANCIAL — The exhibition shell of Berta, the first Georgian company which had taken part in the Private Label Middle East Exhibition (PLME-Dubai), had the largest number of visitors during the exhibition, Remi Chkenkeli, the Commercial Director of Berta told The FINANCIAL.
“The PLME-Dubai was a great success,” Chkhenkeli said. “The organizers of the exhibition sent us a letter informing that our shell had the greatest number of visitors during these three days. Lots of regional and international traders and distributors became interested in our products. We had successful negotiations with several large foreign companies.”
“For the moment we are continuing business negotiations with them and hope that soon we’ll have some new partners,” he added.
Currently Berta is looking for new markets because of the company’s high productivity potential. Its participation in PLME had a huge effect on this.
According to the exhibition organizers PLME had a trade visitor attendance of 3,633 from 53 countries and the participants were 56 from 15 countries.
PLME-Dubai is brought to you by Channels Exhibitions. Headed by the Chief Executive Officer, Justin Boutros, the company is one of the leading exhibition organisers in the Middle East.
For more than 2 decades, Channels Exhibitions has been assisting commercial activity in the region, helping non-Middle Eastern companies to develop their business there, aiding the growth of local businesses and allowing the whole market sectors to expand, prosper and mature.
“Currently we use only 30% of our production capacity. As a result Berta shares 20% of the Georgian hygiene and chemical market and 10% of our productivity is exported to Azerbaijan. Our production increases by 20-30% monthly. But if we worked full-load, the whole Georgian market would take up only 30% of our production capacity,” said Vasil Sulkhanishvili, the General Director of Berta.
“The high production capacity of the factory gives us the opportunity to export 70 % of our production. Currently we are in negotiations and are creating plans to enter Armenian, Belarusian and other European countries’ markets. We took part in PLME to increase our popularity and exports worldwide,” Chkhenkeli added.
Meeting Western quality standards and producing qualitative products are the main requirements for participating in the PLME. After official procedures including filling in the application and paying the participation fee, Berta was allowed to take part in the exhibition.
“Our main competitors on the exhibition were the leading producers in our region. But they haven’t managed to impede our success. Berta is still a new company, but we have undergone huge development during the short period of our existence. The Dubai International Exhibition welcomes companies like us and gives unlimited possibilities to expand their businesses and acquire new partners,” Chkhenkeli told the FINANCIAL.
As the PLME was successful for the company, Berta plans to take part in other exhibitions so as to raise the popularity of the company as well as the country worldwide.
Currently Berta produces 93 types of products. The biggest share of the company productivity goes towards powder detergents. They are in high demand in Georgia as well as in Azerbaijan. Aside from powder detergents, Berta produces soaps, shampoos, laundry soaps and liquid detergents.
The needs of consumers differ according to their settlement type. If automatic powder detergent mainly is in demand in the cities, powder detergent for hand wash is more popular in the rural regions.
The company constantly is adding new types of products to their current collection. Vardo is the product recently produced by Berta. Company representatives say that it’s already popular among Georgian consumers.
Talking about the reasons of the high popularity of Berta, Sulkhanishvili named the label Made in Georgia.
“Our main priority is that we are known as a Georgian Company. All products are produced locally and are distributed to the population in a short period. It gives us the opportunity to always have fresh and ecologically clean products. If Berta wasn’t a Georgian company, we wouldn’t have so many consumers in such a short time,” he said.
PLME-Dubai is annual exhibition organized by Channels Exhibitions. The Middle East is a very good platform for new businesses. With its fast growing and developing population as well as the friendly business environment of the region, it gives possibilities to the businessmen, producers and distributors to come up with new business ideas, build new business relations or acquire new partners.
Discussion about this post