History of the creation and development of Berta Group

Today, the company covers 10 regions of Ukraine and cooperates with more than 280 brands. We have established partnerships with more than 107 companies, serve more than 35,000 retail outlets and have opened 325 own retail stores. And all this thanks to the daily work, trust and support of our 4,355 employees.

2020 – BERTA group acquired another leader in the FMCG market, having received contracts in Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia: Unilever, Nestle, BIC, Humana, and thus took the lead in the market of those areas of the non-food direction.
2021
2021 – BERTA group received the distribution of the American brand CeraVE – medical cosmetics in 10 regions. It complemented the existing portfolio of VICHY and La Roche-Posay medical cosmetics brands.

Expanded the distribution of Humana in Rivne and Volyn.

BERTA group officially bought a stake in another non-food business. The company’s partner portfolio has been expanded with well-known brands of national and Ukrainian producers such as: Beiersdorf, 2K, BIOKON, ERGOPAK and others.

In June this year, BERTA group became the official importer of the German company STORCK, which produces well-known brands such as: Mamba, Toffifee, Merci. Cooperation with this brand is carried out through all sales channels.

A pleasant event at the beginning of the year was the signing of a contract with Unilever, one of the world’s leading food and household chemicals companies.

Such well-known brands as: Lipton, Besida, Brooke Bond, Rexona, Domestos, Daff, Cif and others are represented by our company in 8 regions of Ukraine.

Despite the fact that 2020 will go down in history as a period of global pandemic and quarantine, Lviv businessmen and I remained optimistic and managed to find inspiration and creativity while in self-isolation. The result was an anti-COVID hit – Quarantine in Lviv.

https://youtu.be/PTGvxBtLP0Q?si=o16n_vh5WEkp6EbZ

Despite the complexity of previous crises, we managed not only to survive, but also to get stronger. With the support of our partners, we have jointly adapted to the changes. We are pleased to announce that we have expanded our distribution area to include Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr regions.

This is another step towards our goal of 10 distribution regions in the country.

We do not stop there, we still have many plans, initiatives, projects and dreams…

This year, we are expanding our retail business by acquiring Chistyulia, a chain of cosmetics, household chemicals and household goods stores. The chain has 60 stores in Zhytomyr and the region.

We plan to expand the chain to the national level under the new Chistyuil brand.

In December 2019, we opened 3 stores in Lviv.

Effective cooperation with partners allowed us to become the exclusive distributor of the PURINA brand in 8 regions of Ukraine.

An important stage in the development of BERTA group was the spin-off of the logistics business and the creation of UB1.

In 2019, we opened the first stage of our own A+ class logistics warehouse complex, 12,800 thousand m2, out of the planned 53,150 thousand.

Logistics services are provided by UB1, which positions itself as a 3PL operator. Nestle, Yarych, Alokozay, etc. have already become our first clients.

The year 2019 was challenging and eventful at the same time, so the New Year’s celebration was a logical conclusion to this year.

In order to expand our business and to balance our existing brand portfolio, we made an important strategic and political decision and bought a company that was the largest distributor in the non-food category in Western Ukraine.

Our portfolio of the company was replenished with new non-food brands: Henkel, L’Oréal, Schwarzkopf, Bella, BIC, Biosphere, EKMI, etc.

This synergy strengthened our retail footprint in the existing territories and allowed us to cover 2 new regions – Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia regions.

In 2018, we automated our warehouse logistics by implementing a WMS system, which made it possible to track the location and movement of goods in the warehouse online, to ship products according to batches and expiration dates.

BERTA group was the first Ukrainian company to join the European Trade and Marketing Association (ESMA), which brings together many manufacturers and distribution companies in Europe. At the annual ESMA conference in Madrid, we were awarded the Distributor of Excellence nomination for the best distribution success story.

This is a useful experience for us to understand the development trends of European companies – industry leaders and project a vision of what business in Ukraine will be like in the coming years, as well as to share our knowledge with others.

Another important decision of this period was to start our activities as an exclusive importer. Today, BERTA group’s partners are manufacturers from Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Serbia.

The year ended positively with another award from Trade Master Group as the best distribution company in Ukraine in the food sector.

We are 25 years old! We celebrated this anniversary in a big way :).

At the Lviv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after S. Krushelnytska, we gathered about 1000 guests, including employees, partners and friends of the company.

To celebrate, we decided to prepare some interesting videos about the company

By the 25th anniversary, BERTA already had many business lines and we decided to unite under the new brand “BERTA group”. The new logo has become more modern, dynamic and well-recognizable.

Mars Ukraine unites the Mars and Wrigley teams on the basis of BERTA group in Lviv, Zakarpattia, Volyn and Rivne regions.

In recognition of our many years of work in the market, we receive an award from Trade Master Group as the best distribution company in Ukraine in the food sector, according to a survey of 300 Ukrainian manufacturing companies.

During this period, we are working on systematizing and automating logistics processes. And we separate them into a separate business line to provide them to internal and external customers.

In 2013, we started to develop our own chain of food stores in Lviv called Blizenko.

The chain has 75 stores and is the largest convenience store chain in Lviv. Thanks to good locations and a balanced assortment, we provide consumers with the opportunity to buy the necessary goods comfortably and conveniently. We have begun to better understand the needs and preferences of our customers.

As a distribution company, working with our own network has allowed us to better understand the needs of modern retail, to get more information about the margins and turnover of various product categories.

In 2012, the Berta Company celebrated its 20th anniversary. It took place at the National Academic Ukrainian Drama Theater named after M. Zankovetska in Lviv.

We have set ourselves the goal of becoming the №1 company in Western Ukraine in terms of brand portfolio, territory coverage, number of outlets and turnover.

In 2008, we already operated on this scale:

5,000 customers
11,800 m2 of warehouses
42 suppliers
292 agents
4 regions
In the following years, we improved – systematized our processes, increased our customer base, balanced our brand portfolio, and continued to invest in the development of our team.Becoming the №1 company in Western Ukraine

A large-scale and special celebration of Berta’s 15th anniversary. The main goal was to thank each of the team members for the results achieved and their contribution to the company’s development and to motivate them by giving them unforgettable emotions.

After the celebration, we realized that we can organize not only the distribution business, but also successfully organize large-scale events for 600 people :).

Adopting the experience of our international partners, we are actively investing in the development of our employees and engaging professional training companies to train our staff.

In order to meet the high standards of our business partners, we also start investing in real estate and open our own warehouses.

During this period, we expanded our portfolio of new brands with coffee products of well-known brands such as Tchibo and Ambassador and started cooperation with Kyiv-Conti.

In 2002, we celebrated our 10th anniversary!

This was the first anniversary of Berta. The celebration took place in one of the most beautiful buildings in Lviv – the House of Scientists.

Effective cooperation with international brands allowed us to become competitive in the food distribution market. We also used this experience in our work with national companies.

An important achievement of Berta was to be recognized as the No. 1 company in Ukraine for the distribution of Wrigley.

We continued to expand our portfolio with new well-known brands in the following categories

Confectionery : Chipita (7Days), Zagora, Lviv sweets, Olvia
dairy products: Lustdorf, Galakton, Rainford
juices and drinks: Sandance (brands: Ya, Fruit Garden, etc.)
snacks: Felix, Three Crusts, Golden Fleece.
In 2006, we moved to our own office at 212 B. Khmelnytskoho Street. To this day, it is our second home.

In 1998, Ukraine was hit by a financial crisis. We gained a bitter but very useful experience. During this difficult period, we realized the importance of the company’s corporate culture – having lost money, we did not lose our team and none of our employees quit.

Not all partners understood us, but in order to stay in the market, we started cooperation with competing brands Dirol and Stimorol.

Also, at that time, Kraft Jacobs Suсhard became our partner.

A landmark moment for us was the signing of an important contract with Nestle, with which we have been successfully cooperating to this day.

We continue to work tirelessly on expanding our brand portfolio. For the first time, we gained experience working with dairy products: Campina, Wimm-Bill-Dann Ukraine, Lasunya. At the same time, we started cooperation with Ahmad, which continues to this day.

At the end of 1999, we began to diversify our business and chose retail, opening the first Image cosmetics and perfumery store. Later, it grew to 3 stores and we could proudly call ourselves a chain 🙂

Berta began its history as a distributor in 1994 with such companies as Wrigley and Chupa-Chups. They became the first international brands in our portfolio.
Since 1995, Ferrero, Cadbury, Leef, and MacCoffee have been adding to the Berta brand portfolio.
At the same time, we actively participated in the first exhibitions, which allowed us to make ourselves known and show our brand portfolio.

In general, the 90s were active and successful for Berta. The company received exclusive distribution for well-known brands and grew stronger every year. We began to open branches in Lviv region (Drohobych, Stryi, Chervonohrad), Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk and Zakarpattia regions.

In 1996, we established BOLERO Service to sell alcoholic beverages from well-known Spanish manufacturers.

We were constantly improving and looking for new ways of development. During this period, we opened the first Cash & Carry grocery store in Western Ukraine in Drohobych.

In 1997, we established the AGROPRODUCT company. We started our own pasta production in Drohobych. The use of high-quality flour and egg yolks made our pasta extremely tasty, but economically unprofitable for us. The production weight grew in tons, and our personal weight grew in kilograms :).

On July 15, 1992, Oleksandr Berezhansky founded the private production and trading company BERTA.

Even then, we had two offices. One was at his mother-in-law’s house, and the other was a white Zhiguli, where we conducted negotiations and signed contracts and put seals on the hood. At that time, there were four of us. We started with wholesale trade in food, household appliances and industrial goods.