Ivo Russev: the distribution strategy and the birth of BESIDE

In January of 2004, the first branch of the BENINCA’ and CAB brands, Beside Ltd, was established in Bulgaria.
Immediately, a dialogue with professionals was initiated in order to introduce the product on the market. Right from the early years the branch and the two brands began to grow at a good rate.

10 years after its foundation, the branch manager IVO RUSSEV, retraces the steps of this journey, through distribution and product choices.

1) Meeting with Benincà: the story of a personal and professional journey:
As often happens in life, the first meeting with Benincà was fortuitous. As a foreign trade consultant of electro-technical products, I met Mr Aldo Benincà, who had come to Bulgaria in 2002 for a visit. Then I went to visit the company in Italy and I met Luigi Benincà in addition to the rest of the team. I immediately appreciated the open way the Benincà brothers do things, which is also professional and pragmatic. The approach of the owners, as typical “self-made” people, and the professionalism and industriousness of the staff have created a solid and highly efficient team in the Benincà company, something I've always admired and tried to pursue in my work.
In 2003, Benincà was developing the idea of setting up branches abroad. A proposal was made for me to be a partner for the Bulgarian branch and I accepted the challenge. At that time in Bulgaria, the main competitors of Benincà were already well established in the market and it was clear that the mission would be difficult.

2) The leading products in the growth of the brand, choices and opportunities:
We achieved our first successes quite early on, thanks to the CAB products for rolling shutters. In a short time we were able to gain a leading position on the Bulgarian market, thanks to the good quality of the CAB motors, our contacts with the main customers and the competitive prices we offered. We still hold pole position with the CAB products for rolling shutters and over the years we have developed markets for the other Benincà products - barriers, automation systems for gates, sectional doors etc. Now we are positioned in the first places in Bulgaria for almost all types of automated devices. Currently we are also promoting the new products of the Beninca Holding branches - Himotions, Rise and Myone. Our growing range of products allows us to have a complete spread of options even for large projects.

3) Distribution strategies and the Benincà Holding group in Bulgaria:
At the beginning Beside sold mainly to major customers, which in a small market such as Bulgaria, often have 3 roles - as distributors, installers and manufacturers of doors, shutters etc. We have noticed over the years that for the sale of Benincà products - barriers, automated systems for gates etc. we need to stay close to our end customer. To do so, gradually, we have created a network of offices-stores in the major Bulgarian cities: Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, Ruse, Veliko Tarnovo.
From the central office in Sofia we manage the trade policy, but the local customer care system is assigned to the respective regional offices. In this way we manage to sell even to the smallest end customers, who feel much more secure and relaxed knowing that they can turn to our local sales representative.
The decision to create our own distribution network was not easy. At the beginning the sacrifices were more than the results, but once the regional offices started working at normal rate, they proved to be a successful choice.
With most of our major customers we have reached agreements of mutual interest and many of them, having an additional service locally, have begun to grow more than before.
In 2008 Beside had 6 employees, now are almost double that.
Nobody is under the illusion that the crisis will vanish overnight, but biting the bullet and working hard, in the end the results will come and will keep coming.

4) Key factors to success: the role of Italian made products
During the 10 years of work at Beside we have worked hard to achieve today's market shares. The results have mainly been obtained thanks to the support of Beninca Holding. This was our big advantage over the other players in the Bulgarian market of automation systems.
The “Made in Italy” concept is a guarantee of quality and it is truly significant in an industry where Italian brands are right at the top of world league tables. Of course we must not underestimate the producers of other countries, especially the ones located in Asia. To remain among the leaders, nobody could afford to rest on their laurels. In this sense, I greatly appreciate the continued evolution of Benincà Holding.