The FINANCIAL — Berta is increasing its production by 15-20 percent monthly. The company plans to start selling personal care products including shampoo, conditioner and shower gel by February 2012.
As well as those products, detergents for black clothes, wool and children’s products will be available in the market by the same time. Products in economic, 5 kg packaging will available as well.
“Working on new products started in November and they will appear in the market by February,” said Remi Chkhenkeli, Commercial Director of Berta. “Focus groups are currently testing the products. We plan to have our products in every Georgian family by the end of 2012.”
Berta will start manufacturing technical detergents including floor and carpet cleaner, toilet detergents and universal kitchen cleaner by the end of 2012 as well.
Berta products are currently sold in Georgia and Azerbaijan, but the company has ongoing negotiations with the UK, Kazakhstan, Belorussia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Berta offers products of its own brands as well as products with a private label. This means that the company will manufacture products for export under a name created by the importing country.
“Our factory isn’t working at full capacity,” Remi Chkhenkeli said. “If we were to be working at full throttle, the whole Georgian market would take up only 20% of our production capacity. We plan to increase our capacity up to 80 percent after expanding our export.”
Berta is a complex of factories as it includes five different factories. There are separate factories for detergents, household production, personal care and glass container production.
“New products will be exported as well,” Chkhenkeli said. “We are expanding not just the countries we export to, but our export portfolio as well. Berta started exporting its products in June 2011, just three months after its founding. Starting export so soon is an unprecedented fact as well.”
Berta products are already sold in all key places in Azerbaijan, which was in the strategy of the company. Now they plan to expand the chain of sale in the country.
“Berta has a better image than local products in Azerbaijan,” the company’s Commercial Director told the FINANCIAL. “Our popularity is increasing in Georgia gradually as well. Unfortunately Georgian products had a very bad experience during the 90s. But nowadays the situation is better. More and more local factories are starting to operate and their reputation is improving. Our people have started believing that Georgians can also create products of high quality and international standards.”
Berta got an ISO 9100 standard in October, 2011. The company is currently working to get a GMP standard. This is an American standard for personal care products.
“We had auditors from ISO certification,” he explained. “They audited almost everything including management, governing, producing, quality etc. The auditors were surprised that a manufacturer company had gained such high quality in a short period of time.”
“We look forward to getting a GMP standard as having international standards helps us to enter new markets,” he added.
Participating in international exhibitions and competitions helps Berta to enter new markets as well. The company participated in the Private Label Middle East Exhibition (PLME-Dubai). The stand of Berta had a huge number of visitors during the three days of the exhibition. Lots of regional and international traders and distributors became interested in Georgian products as a result. Berta is currently holding negotiations with several large foreign companies.
“The design of our products was in the best 100 designs worldwide in 2011,” Chkhenkeli claims. “English company Studio Oh helped us to create the design, the face of our products. Being in the top design lists also increases consumption of products locally as well as increasing export.”
“The more the production increases, the more individuals we employ,” he added.
Currently the company employs 250 individuals. All the employees are local, mainly IDPs living in the Tserovani area. Berta will be expanding its staff by up to 70 individuals in the nearest future. Increased production resulted in an increased number of employees.
The company tries to have as many Georgian technologists and chemists as possible. As Berta is the first factory in this sector and there is no experience in this field in Georgia, the company had to hire foreign technologists from the beginning.
“Gradually Georgian specialists are becoming trained and in December two foreign technologists left Georgia. Local specialists hold their positions. Our strategy is to involve more Georgians in the manufacturing process.”
Berta cares a lot about charity. The company took on the patronage of eight homeless children. Berta took them to the cinema for New Year as well as giving them special presents.
“We are continuing to take care of these children and help them as much as we can,” Chkhenkeli said. “We plan to arrange a tour of our factory for them. Berta wants to employ them in our production in the future if they are interested of course.”
Currently Berta produces more than 100 types of products. The biggest share of the company’s productivity is in the direction of powder detergents. They are in high demand in Georgia as well as in Azerbaijan. The needs of consumers differ according to their type of settlement. Whereas automatic powder detergent is mainly in demand in the cities, powder detergent for hand washing is more popular in the rural regions.
The products are divided into two categories: high class, which is the brand Brio; and economic class, which is the brand Vardo. Brio makes up about 60 percent of the whole of the company’s production while Vardo makes up the remaining 40 percent.
Berta Group pays a lot attention to the ecology of the region. The factory has been built with systems of the highest quality for that reason specifically.
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