12/05/03, ArtUkraine.com

UKRAINIAN CANDY-MAKING ENTREPRENEURS TOUR FACTORIES IN  SAN BENITO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA

Chocolate-covered strawberries, pralines and other chocolate delights were offered to a group of businesspeople from the Ukraine who toured local confectioneries Thursday to get a taste of American entrepreneurship, Linda Lee King, Staff Writer for the Free Lance News in San Benito County, Hollister, California, wrote in her story on May 9, 2003.

Hosted by Agland Investment Services, Inc. for the U.S. Department of Commerce's Special American Business Internship Training program, the visitors came to America to learn about innovative technologies and marketing concepts and to familiarize themselves with a U.S. industry sector and its regulations.

Eighteen people in the candy-making business came to America for a four-month training program. Interpreter Chris Brown said the group is touring the San Francisco Bay Area and will go to the Trade Expo in Chicago to see what American manufacturing equipment is like before moving on to
Philadelphia and the Washington, D.C. area.

On Wednesday the group toured the Cliff Energy Bar factory and was impressed with the worker-friendly atmosphere.

"It's much different than what they are accustomed to," Brown said.

Hollister's stop Thursday was the group's second day of factory tours. The first local stop was the De Brito Chocolate Factory, followed by a tour of Marich Confectionery.

"We make a lot of pralines," said Valeriy Plaksiy, manager of a confectionery in Ukraine for a company "Poltavakonditer". "Poltava Confectionery" was founded in 1914. The Ukrainian Growth Funds (UGF) managed by SigmaBleyzer, Houston, Texas and Kyiv, Ukraine, has an major equity investment in the Poltavakonditer Ukraine, headquartered in Poltava, Ukraine.

Plaksiy said he was focused on the manufacture of hot candies such as pralines and caramels. "We are very interested in what the Americans make - the set-up, the machinery and the style of business management," he said.

Mashtakova Alla is the deputy director in charge of production for JSC in the Ukraine. The company has been around for nearly 200 years. "In fact, it is the first confectionery plant, which was founded on the southern portion of the Ukraine in 1820," she said.

Carrie McAlister, director of strategic planning for Agland, said the concept of owning their own business on a small scale is not well understood by the visitors.

"This is an opportunity for them to see how things are done through best management practices," she said.

SABIT has trained more than 2,500 executives and scientists from the New Independent States - the former Soviet Union - and has proven to be beneficial for American companies with over $240 million in export products that have been sold as a result of the program.

The story about the Ukrainian entrepreneurs in the U.S. was monitored by the Ukraine Market Reform Group (UMRG) and the www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service (ARTUIS) in Kyiv, Ukraine and Washington, D.C.