OREANDA-NEWS. February 18, 2008. An interview with Tatyana Kuz’mina, Head of the Public Catering & Trade Shop, who has been at the head of this shop for 15 years.

An uncountable number of food shops, restaurants, cafes and fast food shops have appeared in our city. New ones are being built, the old ones — rebuilt, floors — added, basement premises — reconstructed. All these buildings are getting over stored with new goods, foodstuff, both exotic and traditional. A person simply gets dazzled looking at the abundance of delicious food. There’s a great choice of meat, milk, floury and bread stuff.

How difficult it should be for our Public Catering & Trade Shop to withstand the competition in such a situation!

- Tayana Grigoryevna, did you mange to fulfill the production programme last year?

Basically, yes. Though, it becomes more difficult to work year by year. On one hand it’s competitiveness: opening of such giants like “Amstor”, Bolshaya Lozhka", “Sil’po”, which have their own shops where semi-finished products are produced, bread is baked; on the second hand — price increase; on the third hand — toughening of requirements. But our collective applies maximum force to maintain its basic purpose, i.e. to provide the Works’ metallurgists with foodstuff. The public catering network includes 14 canteens and 2 cafes for 2470 seats. Last year the goods turnover plan was fulfilled by 109.2%. The realized goods and rendered services amounted to 27 mln 730 thousand UAH. The turnover exceeding the plan amounted to more than 1.3 million UAH. Almost half of the realized products are in house fabrication.

The sales departments belonging to the foodstuff group did well, too, irrespective of the tough competitiveness and price limitation. In comparison with 2006 they increased the turnover by 7.4 million UAH. The collective of the central wholesale and retail shop No.90, the 2-storey building located on the territory of the Works, worked especially well. The shop staff always fulfills the plan targets on all the economic indexes. The same can be said about our company shop “Vidrodzhennya”.

- Successful trade mainly depends on the quantity of goods and its quality. If the goods are in demand, then it means that the customers rely on its quality. How do you manage to glut your shops, canteens, buffets with such products?

- At present all the products of our Agrocomplex are sold via our shop. And, as you know, that is meat, sausage goods, dairy products, sunflower oil and groats. Another source is our mini bakery, which delivers its products to all the canteens, shops and buffets. The canteens proper also deliver their own products to many trade stores at the Works and in the city. The vegetable storehouses supply shops and canteens with pickled vegetables, canned juice, fresh vegetables and fruit. The high quality of our products has made our foodstuff very popular. Our mini bakery does not use any ‘modern’ additives when baking bakery products. Shish-kebabs, steaks, rissoles, salads are immediately sold not only in canteens but also in many small kiosks and hawker’s trays which we have organized for the workers of Zaporizhstal and the neighbouring enterprises. Our cooks continue inventing new recipes of dishes to satisfy the workers and to feed them with tasty food. For the shop it means not only earning money but also recognition. We highly treasure the brand of Zaporizhstal.

- A whole industry of public catering and trade. At such a range of activity it seems that you are not afraid of your competitors?

- I must say that not a single enterprise of this field of industry in our city cares for the meals of its workers as ours does. Thanks to the management of our Works our public catering exists and develops. We can compare our Public Catering and Trade Shop only with a similar one at Illyich Works with whom we exchange experience. But the situation is a bit different there and then the Works is twice as large. Among the public catering enterprises of Zaporozhye, meals in our canteens are 3 times cheaper because we apply the third markup category. Dinner of 3 courses costs 10-12 UAH and it includes a large variety of dishes. On the whole the menu of our canteens corresponds to the menu of the city cafes but our prices are several times lower.

- Still our metallurgists consider that it is too expensive.

- We would have liked to reduce the cost of meals but you can see for yourself what is going on in the country. Prices are rising practically on everything before ones eyes. In addition to this the cost of power resources, rent of shops, refrigerators and processing equipment, transportation is increasing. The staff salary, though quite low, is also included into the prime cost of the shop products. Quality control of the products, saving of stocks of materials and capital equipment, price policy is carried out by the revision department, which was organized a year ago.

- For me personally it’s hard to imagine how such a large volume of products produced in your shop is accomplished by only 760 persons, the majority of which are women. Where do such good specialists come from?

- The basic ones are experienced people who have been working here for 15-20 years. All the work is done due to their experience and dedication. When the summer and sanitary time comes another 300 seasonal workers will be required. We will invite our retired veterans. They help us greatly when children’s health improving centers, recreation centers, “Metallurg” resort start functioning. Nutrition is a very serious matter. Here work-permit according to ones state of health is determined by a medical committee. The psychological readiness to serve people, both grown-ups and children is also very important. Of course, one of the most valuable points is professionalism. This means that we choose our staff very seriously. The labour legislation is the same for everyone. The younger staff, becoming a member of the collective working together with veterans, quickly picks up their experience and grasps their knowledge. There is no other way.

- How does the shop trade union organization help you, and how efficiently does it affect the results of production activity?

- I can say the following: the trade union committee headed by Yevgeniya Dmitriyevna Berezhnaya, partially relieves the administration of its care for the workers concerning health improvement of their workers and solves their problems. For many years Yevgeniya Dmitriyevna has been working in our shop. She knows the people, their labour conditions and she tries to support those who are in need of help and moral support. Other problems we solve together and, if needed, we apply to the senior management. Especially, when the situation is connected with a serious illness or a family tragedy. Her business-like character and her humanity attract me. There should be such a person among the staff. I am glad there is such a person in our collective. Undoubtedly, under her influence the psychological climate in our collective has become warmer and the people’s activity has increased. All this, in the long run, leads to positive results in labour activity and it makes me glad. In January a labour collective meeting was held, the organization of which was rested on the shoulders of the trade union head. She accomplished a very complicated task because the canteens and shops are scattered not only around the whole Works but also the whole city. The meeting was held and its participants received maximum information on the work of shop collective in 2007 and the situation at the Works. Everyone had a chance to take the floor. But I think I will express the main point touched upon at the meeting. The collective of our shop is grateful to the administration of the Works for its care for the development of our division in spite of those enormous difficulties which it has to overcome in the present conditions of economic and political instability in the country. This year we will try to fulfill all the tasks set before the Public Catering and Trade Shop even better than last year.