Chumak (company)

The founders of Chumak are young Swedish entrepreneurs Johan Boden and Karl Stüren, who first came to Ukraine in 1993 , when they were 21 and 19 years old, respectively. They were engaged in a family business - growing cucumbers in Estonia . The low yield of cucumbers of that year forced young entrepreneurs to go in search of new suppliers of raw materials. Having been in Ukraine, they decided to create a production here.

In finding investors, they found understanding and support from Professor Hans Rausing, the founder of Tetra Pak . Originally, the company was called South Food, Inc, a joint venture between Swedish partners and the State Property Fund of Ukraine.

On May 29, 1996, the joint Ukrainian-Swedish company South Food, Inc was founded and (with the registration of the Chumak trademark) with a starting capital of 4.1 million US dollars. The company first introduced its ketchup to Ukrainian consumers and became the first producer of ketchup in Ukraine (previously the name “ketchup” was not used in the regulatory documents of the State Department for Quality Control in the food register - the closest analogue was tomato sauce; the company managed to introduce the term “ketchup”).

In 1997, the company bought a canning factory in Skadovsk, Kherson region. Mayonnaise production began. In addition, in 1997 the company began cooperation with McDonalds and became their first supplier in the CIS (Chumak supplies cucumbers, ketchup and mayonnaise to McDonalds ).

In 1998, the company bought two more production plants in Kakhovka - for the manufacture of Chumak sunflower oil, which began to be produced in 1999 . And it was renamed as Chumak CJSC. At this time, the company produced about 80 types of products in various categories.

By 2000, the company owned the largest field of cucumbers in Europe, with an area of ​​28 hectares , and a total of about 200 hectares of land for growing cucumbers. In the same year, both sunflower oil processing plants merged into one - Chumak Oil. Chumak also began cooperation with the leading Argentine food company Molinos de la Plata, producing sunflower oil under the Molinos brand name.

In 2001, Chumak created its second brand, Darina, for low-end products. In addition, the company won a tender for the production of Calve ketchup for Unilever .

In 2003, Chumak began to produce canned foods (adjika, bell peppers and cherry tomatoes).

In 2004, the company received a long-term loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in the amount of 10 million US dollars, ^[2] which it spent on the construction of a new oil extraction workshop.

In 2008, Dragon Capital Investment Company and East Capital Bering Ukraine Fund jointly acquired 70% of the shares of CHUMAK from one of the founders, Professor Hans Rausing (before the transaction, 70% of the shares belonged to Hans Rausing, another 30% to Karl Sturen and Johan Boden) . ^[3]

Among the main products of the company are ketchup , tomato paste, mayonnaise , sunflower oil , salad dressings, kitchen sauces, seasoning sauces, squash caviar, adjika, canned tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, pasta and others.

The number of employees is 1.4 thousand people.

In 2005, Chumak was a leader in the Ukrainian market of ketchup with a share of 23% and tomato paste with a share of 28%. In the bottled oil market, the company ranked second with a share of 22%. ^[four]

Trademarks

• Chumak ( ketchup , tomato paste , mayonnaise , canned vegetables, pasta) - is distributed in more than 20 countries.

In 2007, Kernel sells the right to the Chumak Oil brand to Kernel for 7 years. At the same time, Chumak continues to provide oil distribution. ^[5] In 2008, the Skadovsky Cannery was closed and all production facilities were transferred to Kakhovka.

Chumak is a company with 100% Swedish capital:

• General Director - Konstantin Shevchenko
• Company President - Karl Olof Sturen
• Honorary Chairman of the Board of Directors - Professor Hans Rausing
• Chairman of the Board of Directors - Dr. Tove Johanneson
• Development Director - Johan Boden

• chumak.com - the official website of the company "Chumak"
• Irina Poretskaya. Chumatsky Way (unopened) (inaccessible link) . Forbes - History of the company. Date of treatment March 3, 2013. Archived February 22, 2013.