Strategy

Savara Group’s overall strategy is to continually introduce new categories, brands and products to its line with an emphasis on bringing new and unique items to its markets. The company helps to insure the success of its introductions through comprehensive test marketing, including tastings and

"shop-in-shop" demonstrations, and supports its new products with large-scale marketing campaigns. Savara also aggressively solicits feedback from its distribution and retail partners about consumer reactions and product demand. A relatively flat management structure enables the company to re-focus production directions when necessary and respond quickly to market opportunities.

Savara Group’s customer service system is designed to help its distribution and retail partners continually increase their sales. The company’s service representatives become deeply involved with customers’ businesses, counseling on optimum inventory levels and seasonal changes in consumer demand. These representatives also advise customers on getting maximum benefit from Savara Group’s advertising and marketing programs.

Research, development and market testing play essential roles in Savara Group’s product strategy. Over the past five years, Savara Group and its affiliates have accumulated a comprehensive database of historical sales and marketing information, including 5,000 profiles of distributors and wholesale and retail customers throughout Russia. This information, along with the company’s unsurpassed knowledge of Russian consumers’ tastes and preferences, enables Savara Group to formulate new products that have exceptionally high consumer acceptance rates.

In addition to the company’s existing advertising and marketing infrastructure, Savara Group has developed a new distribution and sales partnership program called Trade House Manhattan. Under this program, the company will provide its most productive distribution partners with exclusive sales territories, volume pricing discounts and special sales and marketing support. Savara Group also participates in joint marketing efforts with The Colombian Coffee Federation and Tulip Meats, including event sponsorship, "shop-in-shop" presentations and print promotions.

Savara Group is currently involved in a variety of joint ventures to distribute products under its own Manhattan brand name or other firm’s existing labels. The company has also begun to manufacture and package Manhattan brand products in Russia, including packaged nuts and candies. All of the firm’s products are distributed either from its own warehouses in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Ukraine, or through Savara Group’s distribution partners in other regions and republics. The company also maintains a fleet of trucks for delivery from its warehouses to stores or distribution partners.

One of Savara Group’s main objectives is to manufacture as many of its products as possible in the countries in which it sells so as to maintain the highest standards of quality and control costs. For example, the company’s nut-roasting facility - the first plant of its kind in the former Soviet Union - helps position Savara Group as a leader in the roasted nut category. Other plans to increase Savara’s manufacturing capabilities include production of its own candies and coated nuts and fruits, and on-site coffee roasting and packaging facilities.

By importing more raw or bulk materials instead of finished products, the company greatly improves its tax situation and strengthens its competitiveness as a high quality/low cost producer.