Being loyal and fair in business. To look for a niche for development and offer new, different goods to the market. Being resourceful when the market is dynamic. These are only a small part of the rules followed over the years by one of the established wholesalers of food products in Central and Southern Bulgaria – “Brothers Commerce”.
In April 2024, the company celebrated 20 years since its founding with an exquisite celebration in Stara Zagora, where it gathered its employees, partners and like-minded people.
Every beginning is difficult “20 years in trade is not a short time, and the beginning like every beginning – it was not easy at all”, the owners of “Brothers Commerce”, the brothers Tenyo and Georgi Georgievi, who have been managing the development of the business for two decades, say today .
“Brothers Commerce” started as a trading company on November 17, 2004. At that time, Georgi was a commercial director in a large company. Together with their brother Tenyo, they decide to start a family trading company. At the beginning, only three employees worked in it – Tenyo Georgiev, their father Mitko Georgiev and Anton Enev Enchev.
The idea they set out with is to make a small but different business. They rent a warehouse of 60 sq.m. in “Interted” warehouse market in Stara Zagora. They only have two refrigerators and two buses. They started trading mainly in meat and sausages. Their range in the distant 2004-2005 consisted of only 16 products, the two brothers recall.
Today the assortment of “Brothers Commerce” exceeds 14,000 products. The company employs 250 employees.
The company “Brothers Logistics” is also part of the “Brothers Commerce” group, which has over 100 vehicles for delivering goods to the most remote corners of the country.
Brothers Commerce maintains three warehouses in Stara Zagora. It has a warehouse and a spacious showroom in Plovdiv, with a large warehouse base in Smolyan, with a warehouse in Sofia, as well as in Burgas.
Brothers Commerce’s latest investment is in a large-scale, modern base near DZU Stara Zagora, and at this stage the first stage of its construction has been completed.
The advantage of being different When “Brothers Commerce” appeared in the field of business in Stara Zagora, well-established trading companies in the field of food products were already working here. To succeed, the two brothers are looking for a niche and an opportunity to break into the market with a new product.
Processed chicken is sold at this time. They decided to launch with natural, chilled meat – something that no one had offered before.
“Right now we all eat like this, it’s the future. At that time, however, no one wanted to produce it for us, everyone was selling injection-molded meat”, says Georgi Georgiev – “We didn’t want to sell the same products that our colleagues were selling and be unfair competition. Our desire was to offer such products that have not entered our market”.
Tenyo and Georgi discovered the solution in the face of the producers. They started developing the goods they wanted and became their first good partners – from then until today. “The process is difficult and slow, but it has a long-lasting effect and is very fruitful,” the two brothers are emphatic.
The other innovation they implement in their business is in the offering of chilled pork. All established traders at the time imported only frozen meat. When Bulgaria opens up to the EU, “Brothers Commerce” enters the trade in chilled pork, which it sells mainly to factories in Bulgaria.
The first shop After the development of the trade in fresh chicken and pork, the idea of opening one’s own store appeared. It is known that chicken fillets and chicken wings usually go to restaurants. Lanterns and legs remain. They must be offered to the people, and at an affordable price.
In 2009, the idea for the first “Kres” store appeared – on the small street “Mario Zhekov” 2 in the “Remiza” district of Stara Zagorje. However, the success of the small neighborhood store turns out to be huge. Customers began to come from all over the city, despite the store’s side location. Thus, logically, two more – much larger stores appeared on the central boulevard of Stara Zagora “Tsar Simeon the Great”, and in 2019 “Kres” opened a store in Smolyan as well.
“We opened a store in Smolyan, because at that time there was no one else there to offer the goods of Bulgarian producers,” explains Georgi Georgiev.
“In addition to striving to sell well, today we also maintain a social policy in our stores. We work at some of the lowest prices. We can afford it because we do wholesale,” say the two brothers. Every year, “Brothers Commerce” records an increase in its turnover of about 30%.
The selection of business partners has been done very carefully in each of the past 20 years, emphasize the two company managers. We do not work with everyone and not at any price! – they are categorical. Their partner must be reliable, offer quality goods, inspire confidence.
“I discovered one of our long-term partners by chance in Barcelona. I saw on the spot that the meats he offers are from free-range animals and good genetic selection. I verified on the spot the correct way of working. “I had three meetings before concluding a contract with him,” says Georgi.
Today, Brothers Commerce has permanent partners in Bulgaria, Spain, Germany, Poland and Italy.
The new base that “Brothers Commerce” is building is in area 18,700 sq. m. It is being built on the site of Building 8 of the former Plant for disk storage devices in Stara Zagora, known as DZU. The first stage of its construction will be ready by the end of this year.
According to the plan, the base has large warehouses, a cold store, a store of 1000 square meters, as well as a specially equipped training room for chefs.
The founders of “Brothers Commerce” are convinced that in order to work well with their customers, they must show them the features and the preparation method of each new product. They have been applying this practice for a long time in their business.
Four authoritative chefs work for “Brothers Commerce” – Georgi Ermenkov, Todor Todorov, Dimitar Paskalev and Maurizio Ferreri.
In the new base, there will be a school to train chefs for the restaurants the company works with. It will be free.
The next 20 “In the next 20 years, we will strive to become wiser…”, the two managers of “Brothers Commerce” say with a smile.
Their idea is to achieve not so much a rapid growth of the business, but an even higher quality in their work, care for the people who work in the company, because Tenyo and Georgi perceive them as their biggest capital, accumulated over the years.
At the celebration of “Brothers Commerce” on the occasion of the company’s 20th anniversary, the management awarded all its employees who have been working for it for 15 years and more. And they are by no means few, because the turnover over the years was only 2%.
