Vadim Malkin. Success story:How to make money on healthy eating

 

Founder of the Easy Meal Vadim Malkin, a person with dual citizenship, a political consultant in the past, intend to establish in Moscow a chain of mini-cafes, where it will be offered only healthy food. More recently, Vadim had problems with overweight, but turned to the Holy faith nutritionists, and was able to achieve optimal results. Their craving for healthy eating, he decided to instill in employees of the Moscow offices, but too meticulous approach to the preparation of diets and the selection of products, not just put a project on the brink of survival. Now Malkin says that much would have done differently if I started all over again.

 



Film critic, political scientist, entrepreneur

40-year-old Vadim was born in the Moscow suburb of Khimki. In 1994 he graduated from the VGIK with a diploma "the film critic-writer". In 1996 took a job in the first sociological Research Agency for Russian, where, according to him, doing all at once: from technical support to analysts. Sociology has fascinated him, and he defended on the subject of candidate's dissertation at Moscow state University.

After the Russian Research he went to work the communications Agency Burson-Marsteller, where he launched projects of the world Bank for the development of legal culture in Russia. Then there was the Federal news Agency (FAI), political strategies and the Agency of strategic communications, whose client was the party "Yabloko", funded by Yukos... As you know, the history of the oil company ended dramatically and Vadim in October 2003 went to London, where he still spends most of the time.

London business not went the security service of the Russian companies do not trust the person associated with Yukos.

The Albion in 2003, he launched his first business — consulting Agency Russian Axis, which was supposed to help major Russian companies to do business in England. However, the idea wasn't particularly successful: the security of many domestic companies after the check refused to cooperate with Vadim because of its Association with Yukos. Then he decided to change direction and in 2007 established a Transitional Markets Consultancy project, which advised Western companies in their work on the markets of the former USSR. In 2010 he graduated from MBA program TRIUM, where he met his future partner at Easy Meal, Petersburger Yury Samokhin. By the time the consulting Vadim tired, and he began to think about the real business.

You are what you eat

The idea came to Vadim Malkin when he arrived Il London to Moscow, faced with the fact that he doesn't know you're there. Just because healthy food is impossible in most restaurants of the capital, and to change their habits Malkin did not want to. He thought it would be interesting to run the project, which delivered healthy food directly to your home or office.

 



Preliminary calculations showed that the launch of the Easy Meal in London would cost 15 million rubles, in Moscow — 10 times cheaper.

Vadim says that quite a long time choosing where to start a business in London or in Moscow. In the UK, according to preliminary calculations, the launch of the project cost 300 000 pounds. In the course of 2011, when the decision was made to start, the pound was worth about 50 rubles, i.e. English startup would cost 15 million rubles. "Of this amount I had, and seed money to attract I could not, and hesitated," — says Vadim.

In the same run required 10 times less money — 1.5 million rubles. Choosing between London and the Russian capital, the partners decided to start with Moscow. "Now I think hard if I had to make the decision again. In London it would let more expensive, but safer," — says Vadim.

Launch price in Russia eventually grew 3.5 times

First, the original estimates are increased by the fall of 2012, when the project was fully launched, more than three times — up to 5 million rubles. After several failures with restaurant-partners in the Easy Meal decided to organize its own production, this has required additional capital expenditures. Secondly, doing business in Russia from London was quite difficult. No monitor the preparation and technology or to taste meals is impossible.

Diet in the workplace

The essence of the project lies in the fact that an advocate of healthy eating should choose Easy Meal meals based on calories and ratios of vitamins, proteins, fats and carbohydrates: each dish is accompanied by a list of ingredients and nutrients. And you can choose just lunch and a program based on daily or weekly norms of caloric content, which specifically calculates the nutritionist. And as neither a healthy diet nor a diet not one of the founders of Easy Meal didn't understand, in a company called British nutritionist sue Baik, which offered a variety of programs supply all the rules of nutrition with the layout of the nutrients (proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins) and painted the calories. The result was approved a number of programs for vegetarians, for those who want to lose weight, for those who follows a healthy diet, etc.

Started business Vadim Malkin and his wife, Julia Umnyakova atypical for Russian startups thoroughness: they ordered a sociological research of the market of healthy food in Moscow. It turned out that the capital they have tens of thousands of potential clients who work in offices and wish to follow the figure.

Facts and figures about Easy Meal

"We made a business out of nowhere — rather, from the denial that was then in the market", — says Vadim. The idea of shipping rations have already been implemented in the US and Europe — there were about 10-15 companies. In Russia at that time was only Just for you ".

The next step was the development of the site, which cost 500 000 rubles. It made for a long time, says Vadim. For the site opened a real battle between the Humanities and the pros who wanted "128 buttons from the point of view of abstract algorithm" is user-friendly pages with a minimum number of clicks. Alteration of the site took more than a year after the launch of the project and required additional investments.

A year before the launch Vadim launched an advertising campaign in Facebook — this allowed him to make the brand recognizable and to obtain feedback from potential customers, during development, fixing bugs and taking into account the wishes.

Stress test on startup

While there was an advertising campaign, the partners were looking for a place where they were to prepare food, and special equipment. Rent in Moscow turned out to be very expensive, and the suburbs are not suited for logistics clients would not have to wait for three hours. Looking for a few months, eventually found a small kitchen on Alexis — more than a business plan, but there was no way. The function of logistics has decided to outsource friendly company.

Vadim Malkin: "a Huge problem has been with the same couriers. If a man 30-40 years in Moscow came to get a courier to 20 000 rubles "clean" means something to him, probably not. He's either a drug addict or alcoholic..."

Vadim happy and often talks about how Easy Meal ordered original packaging with the logo that it was recognizable and it was possible to heat food. Went on Russian suppliers, and then found out that to produce such a package in the Outback in the UK — faster, cheaper and better half. Ordering six months in advance at a cost of about $ 300 000. But customs has requested the document with a seal that when its production is not used nanotechnology. Explanations with the British provincials was quite funny, says Vadim, but the main point was that in England since 1989, no seals. At all. Had to make specially for the Russian customs.

Recipe and "conditional Onishchenko"

The project started in the summer of 2012. Contrary to the expectations of the founders, sales, and visitors to the site were not, and the partners decided that was wrong with the business idea and the region. But in the fall, according to Vadim, "flooded". It turned out that to eat properly not only want women, quite a lot of orders were coming from men. The project is now almost two years, and the founders already know when to expect a seasonal downturn and when growth.

As soon as sales improved, there is a problem with "conditional Onishchenko". Easy Meal is very rigid formula that is tied to 14 parameters (calories, proteins, fats, saturated fats, sugar, vitamins, fiber, etc.) and when, for example, Russia banned the import of cheese "Philadelphia", quickly find a replacement is not possible. Collapses the whole nutrition program. Due to the unexpected unavailability of the components had to redo 12 dishes, says Vadim.

"From this story I learned a good lesson: don't start a business without a partner, which is well understood in the restaurant business," — says Vadim.

Now the average check for one shipping on Easy Meal — 1900 rubles. Vbody is 80-120 deliveries for nutrition programs – many days of rations for the whole day (they have a different length, from 5 to 21 days) and single orders – Lunches. Half of the visitors of the site order lunch, half selects the rations for the day.

Easy Meal, the founders have invested 15 million rubles and has attracted investments estimated in 1 million euros. To date, partners have invested in the project about 15 million roubles – the size of the original London estimates, says Vadim. Plus in the beginning of 2013 to attract private investment, the size of which he did not disclose, but said that the project at the time of the transaction was estimated at 1 million euros.

The company broke even in the fall of 2013. While revenue varies from 3 to 4.5 million rubles per month. The plans for this year are quite modest: grow the revenue by 30-40% stable up to 5 million rubles a month and start a new "offline" in the direction of the small cafe of healthy food.

published

Author: Irina Zhavoronkova P. S. And remember, only by changing their consumption — together we change the world! © Join us at Facebook , Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki

 

Source: vk.com/feed?w=wall-34483558_70886