We all have fond memories of the childhood sweets and biscuits that improved our school lunches, that made a long afternoon at Grandma’s slightly more tolerable or that earned those coins saved up after a week of doing household chores. Different countries, different eras, different brands.

In Bulgaria, one of those that holds a special place in the minds of many is the products of Pobeda JSC, a Bourgas-based company that produces Chernomorets-brand candies and Obiknoveni Biskviti-brand tea biscuits.

Pobeda traces its roots back to 1929, when the Bourgas entrepreneur Avram Chalyovski founded his Commercial-Industrial House for Confectionery, Vegetable Oils, Halvah and Such. In 1999, Pobeda opened an office in Sofia to supplement its Black Sea one.

“Every year, the company tries out at least three new products on the Bulgarian market,” Stefan Stoilov, public relations manager at Pobeda, tells The Sofia Echo, explaining that they aim to respond to public demand for certain types of goods. “This year we’re focusing on items in the biscuits and croissants categories.”

Or in the past couple of years, for example, they have been conceiving and marketing biscuits for an increasingly health-conscious audience – hence the Review line, which uses whole grains, or is vegan-suitable, or makes use of alternative sweeteners.

And though success of new products has been realised, what truly draws customers to Pobeda’s treats are the ones that they have known since their childhood, whenever that may have been.

“We receive many letters from Bulgarians living outside the country who remember these products very well,” Stoilov says, “and who ask how they can obtain them there.”
Rest assured that they are available abroad – Pobeda exports to Cyprus, Czech Republic, Georgia, Italy, Lebanon, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, among others, an act that is part of the company’s overall strategy to expand its market position. Its Bourgas location only facilitates the shipping of goods to other parts of the world.

It also offers supermarket, hotel and petrol station chains the opportunity to stick their own names on Pobeda products, thus expanding its market share through own-label selections. Along with that, in the coming years, Pobeda will also work to improve and develop its catering services.

In the catering field, Pobeda has more than 120 partners in hotels, restaurants, lunch counters, catering firms, airports and petrol stations in Bulgaria.

To do all this, more than 500 individuals work for Pobeda.

“Pobeda is the largest Bulgarian producer of chocolate candies on the market, and recently, consumer preferences have been increasingly in favour of products made in their homeland,” Stoilov says. His personal favourites are the Super Bravo mini-cakes, the Everest line of biscuits and the Chernomorets chocolates. (The word “chernomorets” is used to describe a resident who lives along the Black Sea.)

Stoilov has an interesting history himself – he was in the second graduating class (1997) of New Bulgarian University’s public relations bachelor’s programme, which, at that time, was the only such programme in the country. He says that he defended his senior thesis with a packed suitcase waiting for him, as, immediately following, he left for Doupnitsa, where he took over public relations for a mayoral candidate.

After that, he returned to NBU for a degree in mass media management.

In between 2003 and December 2007, when he started at Pobeda, Stoilov was at the energy company Enemona, where he “laid the foundations for the company’s public communications strategy”, later heading the public relations department, and continued to develop the communication strategy.

If that was not enough, he was also in charge of media relations for a mayoral candidate in Sofia’s autumn 2007 municipal elections.

With so much experience in politics, PR for a sweets company might not seem like a logical job. But, Stoilov says, what drew him to Pobeda was the positive working atmosphere. “It’s very important for me,” he says, “to work in a place where I feel good, and with people on whom I can count. The team here is young, which creates a cheerful and open work environment. ... I am fortunate to work with people who value you as a person and who respect individual qualities; they also encourage you to develop.”

In addition, he enjoys the challenge of striving to improve the company’s situation through “communication politics”.

The only downside? As one in charge of a company’s public relations, the balance between work and personal time, for which he endeavours, sometimes leans more towards the work side of the scale. But it’s all part of the experience of life. He says: “Life, as they say, is a constant transition – of environment, of outlook, of attitude. We all change and develop, otherwise our lives would not have any sense.”

And it is change, development and different points of view that allow us to again and still savour the past today, through sweets and biscuits like those of our childhood.

This article appeared as part of The Black Sea Echo supplement, June 20 2008