Biography Nikolai Farmutushnyak

The company is still holding the leading positions on the sales of simulators. If the copier is the Xerox "Sportmaster" grew in the middle of X of several previous projects of Nikolai Farmutushnyak. The main of them was the creation of Ilion in the year. Farmutushnyak began to develop a regional dealer network. The first store of the current retail network was opened in the year.

Now the brainchild of Nikolai Fartushnyak and a group of his associates owns exclusive rights to distribute twenty brands in Russia. By the end of the year, another store in St. Petersburg will be opened. And it all began with the desire of MIFA graduates to prove the muscles. Eight years ago they came to the gym and found ... More precisely, they just did not find one little thing that was not enough for a full -fledged warm -up - modern sports simulators.

To work out in sports, it only remained to go to Germany for the inventory. As in that joke: “Where are you here by the closest sports simulator? President of the company Nikolai Fartushnyak is a little over thirty, without denying this, it states that three people stood at the source of the company, besides him. They still work in the company. The moment of the appearance of the idea itself turned out to be more than successful: the sports market of the simulators was not just not saturated, it did not exist.

This factor was decisive for starting business. However, the right to be the first - and often the only one in the new market niche - had no one from developing a positive side and the negative side: it had to act at their own peril and risk, often simply relying on intuition. Despite the fact that the founders of the Sportmaster, according to Nikolai Fartushnyak, were starting from Western counterparts and before opening the company thought out its prospects, it is difficult to call it marketing research in the modern sense: “Without thinking twice, we preferred the number one leader-the German company Kettler.

Firstly, it is the largest among manufacturers of such equipment, and secondly, according The price ratio - quality corresponded to the preferences of the Russian consumer. " Choosing a western partner, the apronshnyak decided to follow the principle of "if a copy is a copy, then Xerox, if the simulator is Kettler." And so it turned out: by analogy with a xerox in the minds of the Russian consumer, the concept of "simulator" and Kettler are long identical.

The results of the sports season founded the "Sportmaster", Nikolai Farmutushnyak automatically became a noticeable figure in the sale of sports equipment. But he has rivals. Competitors could be attributed to companies engaged in the distribution of Nike, Reebok, Adidas brands. True, they offer only their goods, developing monobrand stores, while the Sportmaster is a multibrand.

Among the wholesalers, Nikolai Fartushnyak is also difficult to highlight the competitor: "All of them are significantly smaller both in terms of volumes and in the number of branded brands." The exact share of sales of sports equipment belonging to the "sportsmaster" is difficult to name, referring to the lack of special research. Attempts to follow the example of the "sportsmaster" and develop their own networks and other companies are also taking.

But no one else managed to open more than two or three stores. The principle of "all in one" that his company professes can be considered a novelty only for the distribution of sports goods in Russia. In Europe, large multibrand networks exist and successfully develop - Intersport, Sport, Decathlon. The apron came to this idea intuitively. And she turned out to be winning.

The buyer can choose a brand of any company in Sportmaster stores, even if they compete with each other in the market. The peculiarity and advantage of the "sportsmaster" - work mainly on direct deliveries. Exclusive distribution rights impose double responsibility: after all, both success and failures of trading brands fall on the shoulders of one company.

The Sportmaster has developed a brand selection system. Nikolai Fartushnyak identifies three main factors. The first is the exact choice of the most promising areas. The second is the segmentation of the assortment in commodity groups. The third is the division of its customers like, that is, in terms of the price level of the goods offered. ”After the crisis, the company began to focus not only on highly supported customers, but also on people not so wealthy and today, according to the president, it closes all price levels.

To date, we have already placed orders for clothing and explosive firms for the next spring season. By placing an order, we guarantee that we will buy it on time and completely. If we have not guessed demand, half of the goods may remain on the shelves after the end of the season. "According to him, the profitability of the sports business is visible after the season.

Usually, the Sportmaster is in its profit. Although Nikolai Fartushnyak admits," it is very difficult to work with some stamps. "Studies are helped by the requirements of the buyer that conducts its own marketing department every one and a half months. Attract buyers and unexpected news.It is possible, for example, that half a hundred will soon replace roller wheels to self -cabin: in the stores of the network, folding scooters appeared this season, which are very proud of here.

In the crisis, many companies that did not die after August, over the past two years, managed to even increase the momentum. So, according to Nikolai Fartushnyak, occurred with the Sportmaster. Although he flatly refuses to publish financial indicators. At the end of GO, the wholesale in the regions "just lay down on the bottom", but retail continued to develop.

At that time, Sportmaster even opened two sports stores. The regional dealers for six months departed from the shock caused by the actions of the government. For the sake of preserving the dealer network in the central office, they decided to offer goods with minimal margins, on the verge of profitability. However, even in the crisis were buyers who purchased professional gyms. Not only such customers helped to survive that period, but again their own intuition.

In the difficult crisis months, the company was able to survive in many ways thanks to it: the address discount system became almost the only advertising and information bridge with the client. The Farshnyak put the company's employees for the phones - to call the owners of discount cards with offers of individual discounts. Direct-marketing has worked, and since then, the company "love discontans with special love".

The crisis gave birth to another idea. Video "," Old Man Hottabych "," Technolad "," Mir "about the conduct of joint advertising campaigns and the exchange of databases about clients. The retail chains have a similar target audience according to criteria such as age and income. All parties recognized cooperation with effective and continue it so far. In the shadow of their own brands with foreign suppliers, the apron was always able to agree.

The creator of the Sportmaster creator describes the diagram of the development of relations with these partners: “We are constantly increasing the scale of the presentation of the corresponding brand in Russia, and they constantly improve the supply conditions. I think that thanks to sustainable relations with our suppliers and dealers, we were not affected even in M.” Two years ago, the company opened its own page on the Internet, and last year - an online store.

True, it is impossible to call it an electronic store in a strict sense, since the consumer cannot virtually pay for the order placed on the Internet. But it has the opportunity to order the delivery of goods to the house. The company itself has not yet found its advertising image. Nikolai Farmutushnyak several times in recent years authorized a change in the corporate slogan. The problem is that accommodating the entire proposed assortment in a brief, but bright image is not so simple.

The founder of the "Sportmaster" undertook another attempt to find an advertising highlight this summer. Leading advertising agencies were invited to participate in the tender for the development of a new creative. The apronshik did not like a single project. The next spring, the company will conduct a new tender. Nikolai Farmutushnyak wants changes. I wonder what the new face of his company will be?