Billboards for Alla Borisovna Pugachyova's 'new hit' line the city's central streets. Her AB potato chips go on sale next month

SINGING SENSATION AIMS FOR POTATO CHIP SPLASH

Her dulcet tones and extravagant pop persona may have conquered the hearts of tens of millions of Russians, but in her latest business venture, Alla Pugachyova has her sights set a little lower.
The empress of the Russian estrada is hoping that a range of potato chips -- strikingly packaged in magenta and black and bearing her first two initials topped with a golden crown -- will win over fans' stomachs.
Better known for a distinguished singing career and her marriage to flamboyant popster Filipp Kirkorov than for her forays into the consumer goods market, Pugachyova has followed the development of her eponymous snacks from day one.
"Alla Borisovna tested every little thing -- every ingredient, every herb," said Sergei Saidov, general manager of Alla Art Studio in a recent interview at the Sovietskaya Hotel, on Leningradsky Prospekt near metro Dynamo, where Pugachyova and Kirkorov share a cavernous office.
"As soon as the first trucks arrived in Moscow, she immediately asked for a packet to be brought to her so that she could check it for quality," he said.
Saidov was quick to defend the diva's gastronomic qualifications. "She is a totally independent woman, but she has no problem with cooking or doing things at home," he said. "Certain dishes she prepares so well, you'll be licking your fingers afterwards."
While Pugachyova is said to have long wanted her own line of potato chips, the dream became a reality a year ago, when the singer purchased 1,800 square meters of ramshackle agricultural property in the city of Krymsk in the southern Krasnodar region for a mere 200,000 rubles (about $6,600).
By this April, her spanking new factory, named Boom, was up and running and the garlic, cheese, bacon and dill flavored chips will hit supermarket shelves at the start of September, under the slogan "a new hit from Pugachyova."
The potato chips are to be accompanied by a range of alcoholic cocktails -- the details of which are as yet top secret -- and more products are to follow.
Saidov did not reveal the total amount spent on renovation, but insisted that Pugachyova had spared no expense.
A member of the factory management contacted by telephone in Krymsk said Boom can produce 50 kilograms of chips and 3,000 cocktails per hour.
Saidov said the chips would retail at around 10 rubles (33 cents), making them cheaper than leading brands Lay's and Estrella. Despite their democratic price, AB chips should automatically qualify for the so-called VIP echelon of the potato chips market, he said, given "their association with this lady."
How the new chips will fare is anyone's guess and the competition has been tight-lipped about the new arrival.
Neither Frito Lay nor Kraft, which markets the Estrella chips, would comment when contacted this week.
One industry participant, speaking on condition of anonymity, insisted that Pugachyova's factory doesn't have the physical capacity to make any splash on the market.
Even if Boom's production line ran 24 hours a day all year round, the source said, it would barely account for one-hundredth of the 30,000 to 40,000 metric tons of potato chips that Russians consume each year.
Natalya Zagvozdina, a consumer goods analyst at Renaissance Capital, said the glitzy new AB logo -- designed by Pugachyova herself and prominently displayed on billboards from Dynamo Stadium to Red Square -- was far too grand for the humble potato chip.
"It's too sophisticated," she said. "But ultimately, it all depends on how the chips taste."
"It would be logical to see Alla Borisovna's initials on perfumes and premium segment clothes," said Yulia Vedmed, snacks division manager with Russky Produkt, maker of Moskovsky Kartofel potato chips, which retail at about 5 to 6 rubles.
"But mass-market products in the lower price range?" she asked incredulously. "It's extremely risky."
To date, Pugachyova's business ventures have had mixed results.
A signature series of shoes launched together with the Ekonika company in 1997 have seen their sales increase steadily by an impressive 15 percent for the past few years, according to Saidov. The shoes retail for around $150.
Her first foray into business was a bit of a flop. Her Alla line of perfumes launched in 1990 and disappeared a few years later.
Pugachyova never claimed to be a businesswoman, Saidov explained. "First and foremost, she is a creative person."
Not one to be left out of the limelight, Kirkorov, too, is developing an entrepreneurial flair.
The stars' office boasts a glass drinks table littered with bright pink and green champagne bottles.
This was a work in progress, Saidov said: Kirkorov was putting the finishing touches on a range of wines, cognacs and champagne due to go on sale soon bearing his beaming image. What began as a personalized birthday gift from the Rone's vineyard in Rostov-on-Don has become a full-fledged business project.
The stars' business endeavors are very much a labor of love, said Saidov as he closed the heavy office doors, which bear a small bronze plaque marked simply "superstar."
"They're always in there together, working away behind the same desk."

By Alex Nicholson
Staff Writer
Vladimir Filonov / MT


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