Russians have been bingeing on health food in an effort to build up their immune systems in the hope of protecting themselves from the novel coronavirus.
That’s how Elena Shifrina, former model, MIT alumnus and now CEO of Russia’s premier health food company BioFoodLabs explains the surge in sales this year.
bne IntelliNews profiled Shifrina three years ago when BioFoodsLab was just getting going and within two years the Russian edition of Forbes magazine had already named her as one of most successful start-ups of the year. BioFoodLabs, and its leading brand Bite, have come a long way since then.
Today BioFoodLabs sells over 100 different products through most of the country’s leading supermarkets and is turning over 1.5 billion ($19.4 million at the current exchange rate) a year, with revenues still growing before they shot up around 40% this year due to the pandemic. The company has set up an R&D arm and is constantly looking for new product lines, recently getting into “alternative” meat and milk, which have been very successful. And partly thanks to the high quality of its product and helped by the devaluation of the ruble, some 10% of its production now is exported to nearby countries in the EU.
Russia’s BioFoodLabs health food is flourishing in times of pandemicRead More
