This & That, Ceci et Cela

Italian-looking, dark-haired and elegant, Andrei Nikolayevich Korkunov smiles often, apparently because he feels he is living a full life and has attained inner harmony. “I am addicted to chocolate,” he admits. “I have to taste it often in my line of business and have got addicted to it. When I am away for a long time and can’t have my chocolate, I feel discomfort. Once back in Moscow, I eat two or three bars at one go to make up for what I missed.”

When the chocolate boxes with the characteristic antique design hit the Russian market, many buyers thought that Korkunov was a bearded old man, carrying on some ancient family traditions. Even when the entrepreneur stopped hiding and staged a public appearance, many people did not believe that the brand’s founder was a graduate of the Moscow Energy Institute, a military engineer who had no idea about confectionery production a few years before.

Korkunov obtained his startup capital by making and selling jeans after opening a cooperative society in the early 1990s in Kolomna, a city in the Moscow Region. Later, together with a friend he founded a company to sell office equipment, audio and video products, and food. In 1997, he suddenly decided to build a confectionery factory. He says that by that time he had realized that there was a far greater chance of building a booming business in Russia if you owned a factory instead of being a trader. Why a confectionery factory? “I wouldn’t build a metallurgical plant, would I?” Korkunov says. (Article)