A Russian Brand Story
There is a new monument in Moscow, a new addition to a wide range of the capital city’s tributes to famous writers, composers, revolutionaries and Soviet era bureaucrats. This bronze monument, however, does not commemorate a person, but is erected to honor the processed cheese Druzhba (‘Friendship’), a very popular food product from the Soviet epoch.
Karat Cheese Factory, the producer of Druzhba cheese, has built this monument on the street right in front of the Karat’s headquarter in Moscow to honor the famous snack’s 40th anniversary along with the 70th anniversary of the factory. A special jury selected a winner from hundreds of monument designs submitted by cheese lovers from all over Russia.
The winning project for the monument depicts two allegory figures: a crow and a fox holding cheese Druzhba. The oversized cheese package looks quite real with product actual colors and even a barcode. The crow and fox effigies come from the 17th century Russian fable by famous poet Ivan Krylov. However, instead of fable’s skirmishing for cheese, the monument’s crow and fox serenely share it.
This cheese has long been one of the most famous food items from Soviet times and, of course, one of the most popular snacks to go with a quick vodka drink.
The history of the Moscow Processed Cheese Factory (the name Karat appeared in 1996) began in 1934 when the USSR started developing its own processed cheese manufacturing. Previously, all processed cheese was imported from different countries in Europe. The factory was built to supply high quality cheese and dairy products to the new Soviet elite – Communist party and government leaders.
In the 1960’s, the plant was expanded and modernized. It produced a wide range of natural and processed cheeses for mass consumption, the most popular brands being Yantar (‘Amber’) and Druzhba (‘Friendship’). Yantar was actually a low-priced Russian competitor to the processed cheese ‘Viola’ that was introduced to the Soviet market in the 1950’s by Finnish company Valio Ltd. Druzhba, on the other hand, was created (according to local legend) by the factory’s experimental and scientific division to “promote friendship among all peoples of the Soviet Union and the world.” Indeed, Druzhba became enormously popular as a universal snack for Soviet consumers, who for years had endured the limited range of food supplies in the government groceries. This cheese was inexpensive, available and tasty. Housewives crumbled it into family salads and soups, bachelors made fast sandwiches tossing slices of Druzhba onto Russian pumpernickel, and students and intellectuals alike found it to be a perfect snack together with inexpensive Porto wine or vodka. With current annual consumption of the processed cheese in Russia around 500 000 tons (200 000 tons are imported) 15% of customers buy Yantar and Druzhba brands.
Forty years have passed. Some of Karat’s cheese packaging has gotten a makeover, but Druzhba looks practically the same with its unchanged logo (the globe hugged with a big letter D) and its familiar shape and size (a 100 gram block). There is a common name for a small package of cheese in the Russian language that cannot be translated into English with just one word. The closest equivalent for the Russian word “Sirok” is ‘baby cheese’, the name all Russians use when referring to Druzhba cheese.
Today there are about 150 dairy companies in Russia. Karat is one of the largest dairy companies, producing over 130 natural and processed cheese varieties in addition to a number of other high quality dairy products. After numerous merges and reorganizations, the giant dairy combine was privatized in 1996 and became a corporation. The company uses state-of–the-art processing and control equipment, and in 2003 invested millions to purchase an automated production line to make individually wrapped slices of processed cheese according to Western standards.
Karat employs 630 people and makes over 1,000 tons of cheese every month. The company supplies dry rations for the Russian army and navy and makes a “space travel” version of canned Druzhba which lasts up to two years. All processed and soft cheeses including Yantar and Druzhba are made of natural ingredients. Karat claims that it does not use artificial preservatives, colorants or flavors.
Currently, there is rampantly growing trademark piracy in Russia. This has affected some cheese product brands, especially the perpetually popular Druzhba and Yantar. The conflict around these brands started after the Soviet Union collapse in 1991 when at least 20 state owned companies across the country were making them. Ten years later Karat registered them in the Russian Patent Agency (Rospatent) for exclusive rights to manufacture. In 2002 Karat started to enforce these rights, requesting that all counterfeit cheese be removed from stores across Russia. However, this action met with strong resistance and counter suits from copycats (the largest of them Vimm-Bill-Dann from Moscow) which claim that both Druzhba and Yantar were developed in the mid 1960s when all cheese recipes and technologies belonged to the Soviet Union's centralized Dairy Research Institute in Uglich and therefore, should not be considered counterfeit.
Despite recently granted patent for Yantar and Druzhba brands, Karat has lost exclusivity right to manufacture famous cheeses in February 2007. Vladimir Korsun, Karat’s owner and general director, in the recent interview alleged that the company will stop bringing claims against the other makers of famous cheeses and will concentrate in development and promotion of Karat’s own new brands based on French technology. With the success of recently introduced Russian Roquefort and Camembert, Karat is going to invest over $4 million in branding of new cheese products.