Building a team in Russia since 1994
Origins
Volga Trader has been doing business in Russia since 1994. The initial business was a part time effort run alongside an innovation consultancy, Customer Refocus, also run by our founder. The first direction was to export semiconductor lasers made by the Russian company Inject in Saratov to the rest of the world. We obtained a large share of a small market with long product development cycles.
This continued until 2005. By this time the Dotcom bust meant that the innovation business was not particularly strong. However, helped by high oil prices Russia was becoming a significant importer of foreign goods. Volga Trader had built up a large database of Russian contacts with a favourable view of our activities. It was decided to use them to find buyers for foreign goods. A Russian subsidiary was set up with an office and employees in Saratov part of a conurbation of 1.5 million where our founder was already well known. While the city is only 17th in Russia, the conurbation is in 6th place.
Shortly afterwards we were appointed the in-market consultants for Russia for the Welsh Development Agency. This business continues with the Welsh Government Trade and Investment programme.
Volga Trader now
We gained many private clients across the world amounting to about two thirds of our business. These included major international brands especially those based in emerging markets.
Volga Trader developed strong comprehensive data based marketing and sales processes that can apply to a wide range of goods and services. If you have a product subject to customs duty we can guarantee to find every shipment into Russia including importer, date, quantity and price at import. This is a very strong base for a Call List. Our very strong added value is the database software we use to turn what can be 50,000 shipments into usuable information.
At the end of 2014, the oil price collapsed. Russia was no longer able to pay for imports in abundance. In 2015, various sanctions in both directions were imposed by the EU, the USA and Russia over Russian interference in Ukraine. This was a blow to business. We scaled back. However, our team stayed together. Most of our former employees now work for as freelancers so we have an experienced team used to our ways of working.
We are interested in adding freelancers to our team. We are looking for marketing experience and a positive attitude. Send us your details by using the Join Our Team button below.
Acquisition Opportunities
The fall in the value of the rouble since 2008-2015 has presented opportunities. Russian assets have become greatly undervalued. Russian farms and factories now represent great value. Their output is not vulnerable to replacement by imports. Revenues are more certain. Thus we have realigned the business to include support for direct investment and business broking.
Private business in Russia is approaching its 30th birthday. Many of our Russian contacts are now ready to sell their businesses and retire. We can generally find suitable partners for outside investors to acquire. See our Business Broking page for more information.
