“Bringing the Best of Ukraine to the Rest of the World”

NP’s John Pidkowich interviewed John Vellinga, President of Multiculture Bevco, a beverage product marketing company promoting and importing Ukrainian beer, wine and spirits to Canada.

J.P.: What is your Ukrainian connection?

J.V.: Although I am Scottish and Dutch by background, my wife Kathryn’s family is of Ukrainian background and  involved in the Ukrainian cultural scene. In 1997, Kathryn and I moved to Ukraine to start a consulting firm to help companies with the transition to a market economy. I lived in Kyiv for five years and visited the entire country, all 26 oblasts. I really love the country and the people, enjoy the culture, the music, the dance, food and drink.

When I was living in Ukraine, I started a consulting company with three partners.

In 1998, Slavutich was introduced as a brand in Ukraine. They were only six months old when our relationship with Slavutich Brewery began and over many projects, we got to know the their management team.

J.P.: How are products chosen or selected – what sort of process do you go through?

J.V.: We realise that most Ukrainian Canadians are of 2^nd, 3^rd generation or higher, and that a product from Ukraine must be high in quality but sold at a reasonable price. Multiculture Bevco only brings products into the North American market that reflect well on Ukraine, and that make Ukrainians proud to see other people appreciating world-class products from Ukraine.

We developed a strong working relationship with the Slavutich Brewery. While they were a group who were easy to work with, the main reason why we went after Slavutich as a client was because we love their product. Lvivske’s beer operations work with Western thinking, and normal [business] standards. They are majority owned by Carlsberg which lets them run their own show. We deal entirely with Lvivske in Ukraine and we do not have dealings with Carlsberg.

I am a bit of a beer aficionado. In my estimation, Slavutich is not only the best beer in Ukraine but probably one of the best Pilsner style lagers anywhere. Oliver Dawson from Beerlovers’ Tour Company would echo the same comment. Slavutich is made in the most modern state-of-the-art brewery in all of Europe. Whereas Lvivske is a brewery with brand new equipment, and a tremendous heritage – it is almost 300 years old and has an amazing history. We have the two best and more interesting products from Ukraine – Slavutich, with exceptional quality, and Lvivske, also with great quality, but with a rich heritage.

J.P.: When you speak of quality, it’s not only a matter of taste but also based on the ingredients used?

J.V.: Both Slavutich and Lvivske are made according to the Reinheitsgebot standards or the German Beer Purity Law (1516), which means they only use malt, hops, water and brewer’s yeast, and nothing else. Most main stream beers in Canada have adjuncts, cheaper substitutes for expensive malt. With Slavutich and Lvivske, you’re getting not only world-class beer, but craft brewing on a large scale. It just shows you that a large brewery can make excellent beer, maintain high standards and use only quality ingredients.

Both Slavutich and Lvivske beer ingredients would be on par with each other from a quality perspective. In Ukraine, 12 per cent on the beer label means malt content not alcohol content. Such high malt saturation indicates a beer has nothing but malt in it and has no adjuncts. Slavutich and Lvivske both are pilsner style lagers, traditional light yellow in colour, and by far the most popular style of beer in the world. The subtle differences between them can be best characterised by Slavutich’s full-on cereal malt taste beginning. Right after that, the taste of hops balances out the taste and yields a rich beautiful beer. Lvivske is a bit dryer and consistent in taste. The beginning, middle and finish are the same, and preferred by people who like German beer. Someone who likes Polish, Dutch, or Belgian beer would prefer Slavutich.

J.P.: Other than beer, how did the other products in Ukraine come to your attention - the vodkas?

J.V.: Both Slava and Zirkova vodkas do not exist in Ukraine. We considered Ukraine’s existing exportable vodkas that might be marketable in North America, but their names were unpronounceable, or the packaging was not right, or the vodka too fiery.

Slava is very easy to pronounce for Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians alike and meaningful to anyone of Slavic background with positive connotations [glory]. The created name Zirkova is not part of Ukrainian vocabulary, but has “star” quality reference such as in “five-star” - p’yat zirkovyy. Zirkova sounded nice and was not a taken brand name. We trademarked it in Ukraine, Canada and elsewhere in the world. Control over our own brands was important, in order to steer clear of ‘bandit involvement’ in the alcohol industry in Ukraine. Being very selective, our vodka distillery partner is Zlatogor, and is not the largest vodka maker in Ukraine. However, when we ran blind taste tests, their vodka always came out number one, winning over top vodkas in Ukraine. The people who run the distillery are excellent, honest, very easy to work with, interested in the brand, and very cooperative.

Slava is designed strictly for the North American palate and is an extremely smooth and cold vodka. In Ukraine, people would find it too smooth and is very much an export product. We wanted to have two very distinct vodkas. Slava is priced like normal vodka at around $28, but on par with the quality of other ultra premium vodkas (in the $40 plus range). Zirkova has the more traditional Ukrainian flavour with a bit more fire but still very smooth, and would appeal to people more accustomed to other Ukrainian vodkas. Zirkova and other “top” vodkas from Ukraine may come from the same [Zlatogor] factory but are still very different products, made with completely different types of spirits. We designed Zirkova to be inexpensive, using the same shaped factory bottle, and as high quality as possible, using ‘lux’ spirits used in all premium vodkas in Ukraine. Therefore, Zirkova sells for around $23.

Ukraine is the second largest vodka producer in the world and knows how to do it right. Ukraine’s vodka is rye or wheat based, which tends to make them smoother, more pure and makes for a clean spirit. “Lux” spirits are graded in Ukraine as the second best quality spirit. Different types of spirits depend on what kind of rye or wheat is used, and how many times distilled. Zirkova is made of three types of rye spirit four times distilled. Slava is made from one level above “lux”, also four times distilled and from the [distillation] centre cut, the best that money can buy, and roughly translates from Ukrainian as “tears from God”.

J.P.: Recently, Krimsekt sparkling wine was part of an end-aisle display at the LCBO during the Holidays. Was this is a successful campaign or product promotion?

J.V.: All our products were part of what’s called “Discover Your Community” program at the LCBO. In our estimation, this promotion was very successful. As a company, we just concluded our best sales period ever running from January 6 to 31. There are a number of contributing factors. The LCBO promotion is definitely one of them, but this was only in 20 stores, however, one or more of our products are in 200 stores. Also, stores were compelled to take on a fair amount of inventory. Sales were definitely helped with stock availability because it’s more difficult to manage stores that are out-of-stock of our products.

J.P.: Are you looking at prospective future product lines for marketing consideration?

J.V.: With respect to wines from Crimea, we are looking at one brand which was so popular in Ukraine, that up until now it was not available because there was no product left to export. To make a product available in the North American market, there is a long application process with the LCBO. That said, we would like to bring normal dry-white and red Ukrainian wines that have North American appeal.

 John Vellinga is 2^nd Vice President/Director of the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce. He is a founding partner of EDS, now the largest consulting firm in Ukraine.