Fozzy Group opens Silpo – Sri Lanka in Ukraine

Silpo – Sri Lanka is t he world’s first Sri Lanka featured mall and provides unrivalled Ceylon Tea shopping facilities and Sri Lankan experience.

Fozzy Group is one of the largest trade industrial groups in Ukraine and one of t he leading Ukrainian retailers, with over 500 outlets all around the country and Silpo was established in 1998. The group sells food and household products via its Silpo supermarkets chain and Le Silpo.

The Sri Lanka Tea Board delegation met Silpo Food LLC during the official visit to Ukraine last year and as an impact of those discussions, the Silpo supermarket chain of Fozzy Group has proposed this novel concept to promote Ceylon Tea by setting up a Sri Lankan featured shopping outlet in greater Kiev, under the Silpo supermarket chain.

Further, the Sri Lanka Tea Board established a separate zone for Ceylon Tea at Silpo – Sri Lanka mall and it offers tea tasting, details of the diversification of the Ceylon Tea and Lion Logo, Ceylon Tea face masks, etc.

The Silpo – Sri Lanka mall offers customers a wide variety of Ceylon Tea signature brands packed in Sri Lanka with Lion Logo, such as JAF Tea, Basilur, Dilmah, Akbar, English Tea Shop and Hayleys.

In addition to the Slipo – Sri Lanka, the Sri Lanka Tea Board is planning to conduct promotional and branding activities for Ceylon Tea at the Sri Lankan featured mall and some of the identified outlets of the Silpo supermarket chain, such as degustation sessions every week, category branding and placement for Ceylon Tea brands, shelf-talkers with-lion Logo, educational programmes about Ceylon Tea, tea ceremonies and Ceylon Tea competition and Winning for Our Guests will visit Ceylon Tea lands in Sri Lanka. The Tea Board is coordinating with Silpo Food LLC Import Manager Olesia Oliinyk in Kiev for all operational activities.

Sri Lanka Tea Board Director Promotion Pavithri Peiris said, “Degustation sessions and educational programmes will be started in 2021, due to the pandemic situation in Ukraine. She also said that the SLTB was planning to roll out the Ceylon Tea promotional campaign in Ukrainian by early next year and the promotions would be conducted three ways, targeting Key Opinion Leaders (KOLS), public relations and search engine optimisation.

Ukraine is a traditional tea consuming nation and the fourth largest tea importing country in Russia/cis region after the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Sri Lanka has taken the leading position in the Ukrainian tea markets, with a share of around 22 percent in volume term, followed by other major suppliers such as India, China, Kenya and Vietnam.

As per the Sri Lanka Customs data on Ceylon Tea, around 70 percent of the volume exported to Ukraine is in bulk form and balance 30 percent is in packets and tea bags.