There are reasons for pride indeed. For a Bulgarian company, operating in the fast moving consumer goods sector, aiming at global markets is a clear evidence of great courage and confidence – not only in the qualities of the products but also in those of your team. But as a market expert, with whom Forbes talked, said, “Kyurkchiev not only knows very well what he wants to do, but he also has the courage to do it.”
Only just at the beginning of our conversation the fresh-faced 49-year-old entrepreneur with bushy hair said: “We seek to move to another level because we are consistent. From level 6 you move to 8, then to 12. And if we say that we are at level 20 now, we would like to reach 22.”
Continuing in figures, he pointed out that currently 40 % of the sales of Ficosota are concentrated in Bulgaria but “in three or four years those sales will be only 15 %”. (Note that there is no uncertainty or any conditionality in that statement).
“We are becoming a larger company which started from Bulgaria, actually it does not matter from where we started; but we want to make brands which sell globally; we are going to the world”, said Kyurkchiev. He has, however, learned how to segment - and the wide choice of brands enables him to choose which one of the products to position in a certain market. “We divide the business into regions and develop the brands according to the market specifics.”