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Food management for employees in Georgia

by Business BanquetBusiness NetworkBusiness OffersBusiness StoriesBusiness StyleLatest PostsNewsSocio-Cultural Environment

 

In the modern world for human resource specialists and CEOs’ one of the biggest deals is to create an appropriate environment for staff to keep them creative and productive. When they work in offices or do some physical work, they need to be fed fine to keep productivity during their working hours. In Georgia most of the companies don’t take this responsibility and the government doesn’t have any promotion on this issue. Even more, companies that give meals  to their employees, have to pay the VAT, which is one more reason to avoid feeding their employees.

Despite that it’s not very popular in Georgia to provide meals for the employees there are some companies which offer this kind of service. Food Management Group is among them operating in Georgia since 2012. For now the company unites more than 100 employees and takes one of the leading positions in the field. Food management group provides several services, like Cafeteria management, Lunchbox system and buffet.

According to the quantity of employees they offer delivery service of prepared food or cooking on the place.  As the top manager of the company mentioned in the interview with BUSINESS GEORGIA that the recipe of their success is high quality of products and services, which they are keeping for years. “We always have fresh commodity and try our best to meet the highest standards in our field. “

How did you get the idea of doing this business?

About ten years ago the company where my wife used to work was rejected in the last minute to be served by one of the catering companies. She was stressed, couldn’t find another company so fast. It was first time I provided the lunch for one of the leading insurance company in Georgia, of course without any refund. After that I started thinking about this gap. This made me inspired and I started providing lunches for other companies. First time I used to make food at home and offer it to small companies. But from time to time the demand has increased. Then I started offering this service to bigger companies and established the enterprise in 2012. For now our business unites about 100 employees and we provide service for some leading companies.

What motivates you to do this work for years?

The main motivation for me is that we created an opportunity for people to eat healthy and balanced food during working hours. The practice of our country is to eat fast food during the day because healthy food costs too much if you don’t cook by yourself.  We are proud that we took this gap many years ago. Another thing that motivates us is that we try our best to set up the practice that companies should pay for the food of their employees.

What kind of challenges do you see in your field for now?

The biggest challenge is the preservation of prices and quality. That means to offer balanced food (balanced meals include one food from each food group – Dairy; Vegetables; Fruits; Grains and Protein.) with affordable price.

 

 

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Unique Flower Shop Anemone opened in Tbilisi by young entrepreneurs

by Business EnvironmentBusiness StoriesBusiness StyleLatest PostsNewsTrade Opportunities

Located in a residential complex of “Your House on Jikia”, Flower shop Anemone makes a good impression with its innovative design and exotic plant assortment. Together with the fresh domestic plants, shop also supplies premium imported plant varieties.

With careful preparation and great interest, young couple and owners of the Flower Shop Anemone, Giorgi Ubiria and Ani Arveladze hope that this will be a trustworthy place where customers can have a new experience with premium pot-plants as well as other plant-caring products promising to be appreciated and receiving eye-catching presents.

“Our shop aims to bring customers the most beautiful and freshest plants for their house decoration, to design green balconies or home interior, creating beautiful environment around them. The Flower Shop Anemone offers a unique and comfortable green space, where plants are replanted to a desirable colorful pots based on the request and needs of the customers,” noted Giorgi Ubiria with the BUSINESS GEORGIA.

Most of the plants are imported from the Netherlands and then sold in selected pots. Owners of the shop are somehow trying to set up the tradition of gifting flowers in pots using a slogan – Gift in Pot. Flower Shop Anemone’s products are sold both at the store and in social media making available easy and fast delivery services.

The young entrepreneurs already have attracted new corporate connections and some developer companies started partnership and ordered garden plants for their residential complexes. Their plans are to expand and offer unique opportunities for each customer.

BUSINESS GEORGIA is impressed and ready to support entrepreneurs in Georgia by spreading business information, especially promoting those who are enough brave to start own business and develop the economy of the country by their creative ideas, influencing youth and motivating them to become independent business people.

Photos by Khatia Psuturi

8Apr

Austrian coffee brand wins the hearts of Georgian consumers

by Business BanquetBusiness StoriesLatest PostsNews

 

In 21 century coffee become an integral part of a modern human’s everyday life. But history of coffee began in early 10th century. The native origin of coffee is thought to have been Ethiopia, but by the 17th century, coffee had made its way to Europe and was becoming popular across the continent.

 

Coffee was not only enjoyed in homes, but also in the many public coffee houses — called qahveh khaneh — which began to appear in cities across the Near East. The popularity of the coffee houses was unequaled and people frequented them for all kinds of social activity.

 

Not only did the patrons drink coffee and engage in conversation, but they also listened to music, watched performers, played chess and kept current on the news.  Coffee houses quickly became such an important center for the exchange of information that they were often referred to as “Schools of the Wise.”

 

Coffee became a part of Vienna’s identity during the Siege of Vienna, when the Turks tried to capture the city. In 1683 the Austrians successfully chased off the invaders, who left bags of coffee beans behind, effectively introducing Vienna to the beverage. Coffee in Vienna is not just a morning pick-me-up, or an afternoon perk, it is a way of life, and a distinct and essential part of local culture.

 

And Since 1862 start the history of one of the internationally successful Austrian family coffee company – Julius Meinl, which is the embodiment of Vienna’s beloved coffee house culture for more than 155 years. The global success of Julius Meinl is based on traditional values: five generations of coffee expertise, premium-quality products and excellent customer service. Values that are no longer a certainty these days.

 

Julius Meinl is a global ambassador for Viennese coffee culture and today inspires people all over the world, just as the coffee house literati did in days gone by. Restaurants and business customers in more than 70 countries rely on Julius Meinl coffee and tea. The company already ranks among the top 3 premium coffee brands in over 40 countries.

 

Since 2010 Julius Meinl penetrated the Georgian market; however it was initially only available at restaurant networks. The café-boutique was opened due to a high-demand, enabling all guests to taste and purchase Julius Meinl products on the spot.

 

Julius Meinl is distinctive not only with diversity of products and their environmental friendliness; In Georgian Julius Meinl café-boutique costumers will be provided with appropriate service – implying a consultation for purchasing coffee. You can not only select coffee, tea or hot chocolate, but also receive consults regarding the coffee machines you can also buy on the spot.

 

In fact, UNESCO added Viennese coffee house culture to their list of intangible cultural heritage, saying that the coffee houses have a “very specific atmosphere” and are places “where time and space are consumed, but only the coffee is found on the bill.”

 

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Galt & Taggart named the Best Regional Securities Brokerage – Georgia 2016

by Business Stories

Galt & Taggart was recently named the Best Regional Securities Brokerage – Georgia 2016 by Capital Finance International. This is the latest in a series of recent awards recognizing G&T and its achievements on Georgian market.

G&T is the investment banking subsidiary of Bank of Georgia Holdings PLC, the only entity from Georgia listed on the premium segment of the London Stock Exchange. G&T has established itself as the leading investment bank in Georgia, offering a full range of investment banking services, including Corporate Advisory, Capital Markets, Asset and Wealth Management, Brokerage, and Research.

Over the past year, G&T acted as the sole placement agent for the EBRD and IFC local bond issuances and successfully placed corporate bonds for m2 Real Estate, Evex, and Georgian Water and Power (GWP), all listed on the Georgian Stock Exchange. The US$ 20 million m2 Real Estate bond issuance in March 2015 was the largest public fixed income placement in Georgia to date. The development of Georgian capital markets is crucial as it will enable better risk sharing and more efficient allocation of capital, while attracting foreign capital, which can lower the cost of funding for local companies.

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Business Awards 2016 is waiting for applicants

by Business EventsBusiness Stories

“Business Awards 2016”- this is the new joint initiative by TBC Bank and Geocell that will be launched in the near future. Companies that are operating in Georgia, are registered before 2016 and their yearly turnover is not more than 10 billion, can take part in the competition.  The main goal of the awards is to promote development of micro and medium size business. For the first award ceremony, winners will be announced in the following categories – Agro-business  of the year, Best Georgian Product, Innovative Business, Marketing campaign, Micro business and the business of the year. The award ceremony will be conducted in November, call for applications is already open and continues until the deadline on August 15. For the ones, who want to participate in the award, can submit their electronic applications to Businessawards.ge

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What The Billionaire Class Tells Us

by Business InsightBusiness Stories

It should come as no surprise that the U.S. leads the world in the absolute number of billionaires in the country — 536 in 2015. But what those billionaires say about America is less obvious.

Researchers parsed the global list of billionaires examining trends across the world over the past two decades. America’s billionaires demonstrated three things: fewer heirs, more financiers and higher rents.

Despite the high profile of billionaires like Donald Trump and the Walton family — whose wealth preceded their birth — the U.S. stands out worldwide for the comparatively low share of fortune inheritors. Just 29 percent of American billionaires grew their wealth from an inheritance, compared to 21 percent worldwide. And that share is falling.
“In the U.S., extreme wealth is increasingly tied to finance,” study co-author Caroline Freund told ProMarket, a blog associated with the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Financiers make up 27 percent of the mega-rich in the U.S., compared to 21 percent worldwide.
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The biggest winners in the past 20 years: hedge funders. The U.S. stands head and shoulders above the rest of the world in the number of private investment professionals measuring their wealth in 10 digits, with names like George Soros and Carl Icahn near the top of the list. More than 80 percent of hedge fund billionaires in the world hail from the land of the free.

The biggest winners in the past 20 years: hedge funders. The U.S. stands head and shoulders above the rest of the world in the number of private investment professionals measuring their wealth in 10 digits, with names like George Soros and Carl Icahn near the top of the list. More than 80 percent of hedge fund billionaires in the world hail from the land of the free.

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“We Want It To Be Ten Times Better”

by Business Stories

Scientist and businessman, Nikoloz Vacheishvili shared his story of success with us. For full interview with the businessman, read Business Georgia Magazine.

– You haven’t abandoned science. You read lectures in two Universities. Do you see the difference between the two activities? Could business be regarded as a kind of “foe” of science?

I can’t say anything about “feud” but it sure is a challenge. They actually are two parts of one sphere – their balanced development, being active in science and wine-making is also an essence of life. Thus Ateni is an “open space”, oft en visited by my students. There we can discuss different issues: cultural landscape or the mechanisms of the protection of monuments and the environment, and so on. In short, we can regard these two different jobs as two spheres replenishing one another.

–As Bernard Shaw used to say: Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time. Now that you have distanced yourself from the mistakes, do you think that any of them were fatal?

As I have already told you I like to recheck, to turn the personal goal into a “public” one before making a step – I believe it used to keep me out of harm. For the same reason I feel sorry not for the mistakes I made, but rather for the fact that even more could’ve been done, with bigger intensity, and subsequently better results. Nevertheless, life is as it is, and considering that more could’ve been done one might as well brace oneself and manage to do it.

– What did you fail to achieve for the lack of time, what would you like to go back to?

Many things… For instance, I would have returned to the issue of educating the new generation in the sphere of cultural heritage. I would have made it a principal issue. It was important in the past but life goes on so it has to gain an even bigger importance. Your question too refers to the same sphere – whatever exists is probably good, but we want it to be ten times better.

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The Taste of “TÓNE” IN MANHATTAN

by Business InsightBusiness Stories

Eleven years ago he has moved to USA with wife and a little son. Luckily, the accustomization to new circumstances went easily. In just one year he’s started his first small business, and after that moment his American dream was finally beginning to come true. Transportation of building
materials, that later turned into construction company, once was a quite successful business for Koba Bogdanovi, but 2008 global financial crisis took Koba into a loss as many other businessmen in USA.

“Our goal is to acquaint Americans with Georgian culture and cuisine”

If you are interested to know how the dream of Georgian businessman came true, read the full article in Business Georgia magazine in October.

The Peak of Georgian Intellect Club and Jeopardy Launch

by Business InsightBusiness Stories

Giorgi Mosidze, Founder of Georgian Intellect Club

– In a business sphere, there is a term called “Entrepreneur’s Dilemma”, when a businessman finds hard to step forward, afraid to fail, due to the demotivating surrounding. It is an essential factor
for life too – to step forward. What was your path of success?

– In 1991, the first game we played was at the medical institute and drew wide response from the society because during these very difficult years, the young generation was getting together every
Sunday and playing. Next year, there will be the 25th Anniversary of first game. However, it took us several years of daily, hard work to get, where we stand today. Despite the great difficulties, the
game did not stop. This very systematic approach has led to bringing up the generations. Now, finding a sponsor is not difficult any more. Today, those, who used to play with us, are occupying various positions, including the work in business structures and initiating assistance.

Find full interview with Giorgi Mosidze in Business Georgia 1st magazine.

Business Integrals of Two Generations

by Business InsightBusiness Stories

Giorgi Gagua, the Candidate of Historical Sciences, Businessman

-In your opinion, what can be the prerequisite of successful business career: an original idea, luck or any other factor? When you started your business, the faculty of Business Administration did not exist in Georgia. However, it has not hampered your success. Could you tell us, why has there been a need for special knowledge in this direction today? What are the new challenges facing the modern
business?

All the listed criteria are necessary for success. But unlike the old periods, the modern era has other requirements for the beginner businessmen. In particular, then my “secondary” education didn’t prevent my business from success, if you had placed your processes under the so-called permanent stress. But today it’s necessary and even unimaginable to run a business without economic education. New steps in business require market research, analysis, marketing, effective business plans, risk assessment, financial feasibility calculations, etc, which needs deep knowledge and you can’t rely on intuition only. Otherwise, we will be dealing with something like the turbid water
principle, meaning that the chances of success are associated with random cases, rather than the rule. The muddier becomes the water, entrusted with such chances, when more educated young people join in this field.

At the beginning of my work, running and managing a business did not cover so many requirements, so we were able to manage the processes easily. Later we gained certain experience from practice, we studied some details on our own, attracted the professional staff, and today the serious
and educated young people are holding all areas of our business. I believe, that in case of having had appropriate economic education at that time, with my partners or independently, our business and return would have been much bigger.

Read the full interview with Giorgi Gagua in Business Georgia 1st Issue.