In the fall of 1997 the future leaders of TEPPA , already having common business experience in the equipment supply for livestock farms, decided to start a new business – the production and sale of cereals. They cooked a new porridge, so to speak.
Then the future leaders ordered in Kyiv a hulling machine worth 20 thousand dollars. The money was borrowed at 60% per annum. That was risky but youth and the desire to have “their own business” won.
On February 2, 1998, the first hulling machine was brought in disassembled form. This day became the founding day of a new company, which was then called so unusual and beautiful – TEPPA (TERRA), derived from Latin – Earth.
Within a month, they personally mounted it in a cold hangar of the former Agrostroi.
On March 2, 1998 we received the first batch of cereal, 10 tons of which were already sold in Kharkiv markets on March 5.
The first hulling machine gave 5 tons of cereals per day. The company produced barley, pearl and wheat groats. They were packed in bags of 50 kg. Then the company employed 15 people. Cereals were sold to wholesale depots in the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
In 1999 Crimea, Kherson, Kyiv, Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia regions were added to the sales regions. A year later TEPPA products were sold throughout Ukraine.
At first there was only one line, which was constantly reconfigured to produce different types of cereals. Valuable time was being wasted, the equipment was additionally wearing out so it was decided to put a separate line for each type of product.
All profits were invested in production, and in 2000 there were already 7 lines, and in 2001 a new line for the cereal flakes production was mounted and put into operation. We bought a large water tank and used imported water as we needed steam.
In 2002, the packing line for cereals and flakes was put into operation. In the same year the first product deliveries to Lithuania were made.
Cereal production gives grain waste that used to be sold to the population for feeding domestic farm animals. TEPPA grew rapidly and produced more and more feed, the supply exceeded demand. We immediately turned to the idea of starting our own livestock farm – the first one was built in 2000 then two more within two years.
Everything went according to plan. But a year later, the unprofessional actions of the veterinarian resulted in a situation that the second farrowing was born dead. Two years of pig-breeding experience resulted in about 2 million hryvnia losses. Therefore, this case was curtailed and closed. Farms were dismantled, equipment was sold so that there would be no more temptation to return to this business…
The company has grown significantly in territorial terms since its foundation. We have an office in the city, the flakes production department is a few kilometers from the cereals production workshop, the packing site is detached from other production facilities. The company’s management continued to plan its further development because you can’t build a serious business without this – you have to keep moving forward!
In January 2003 the company acquired dilapidated production facilities of Silhosptechnika (“Сільгосптехніка” – agricultural machinery) that was inactive at that moment and in February of that year we began their reconstruction. Construction works were carried out around the clock.
In the summer of 2003 all equipment including the packaging line was dismantled, transported and installed in a new workshop.
A new gas boiler house was built and launched which provided household premises and production with heat and steam. A deep-water artesian well was drilled on the territory of the enterprise to provide clean water. Thus, all divisions of the company were gathered under the same roof.
In the same year the first product deliveries to Azerbaijan were made.
In 2005, the foreign product sales market was replenished with a new country – Turkmenistan.
In 2006, the company carried out a cardinal technical re-equipment of production, outdated equipment was replaced by modern and high-tech at the time. There were new opportunities.
The first deliveries to Israel were made.
In the same year, the packagings of products’ entire range were replaced by more modern and high-quality ones.
In 2007, TEPPA’s trademark was rebranded. A new brand mark was developed (by designers and members of Ukrainian Union of Artists and Ukrainian Union of Designers – Mykhailo and Olha Kvitka).
The first country of the European Union that became interested in TEPPA products was Czech Republic.
The sales market was also replenished with Georgia and Uzbekistan.
In the year of its tenth anniversary the company carried out a large-scale construction of a new packing department having it equipped with modern packing equipment from the Basys company; warehouse of packaged products, a new modern laboratory, household premises, as well as a biomass boiler house.
In the same year CitechUkraine B.V. implemented at the enterprise a quality control system in accordance with international standards ISO 9001-2008.
Belarus, the USA, Canada, Hungary, Kazakhstan and Armenia joined the importing countries.
We purchased and installed high-tech line for dosing and packing of multicomponent blends starting from 30 grams.
In 2010, a modern production line of instant flakes was purchased and installed. The production technology is based on the use of preliminary moistening of the grain and its subsequent heating with infrared rays.
Among essential elements in the quality improvement structure were the installation of metal detectors that completely prevent metal inclusions from getting into the finished product, as well as a high-precision color sorter that sees defective grains with “its eye” and removes them.
In 2010, the production capacity of TEPPALLC allowed us to produce up to 3000 thousand tons of cereal products and 1.5 thousand tons of flakes per month. The area of production facilities was more than 3000 m², while the area of storage facilities was 10,000 m². The company employed 250 people.
In the same year our products were exported to Africa (Kenya).
In 2010, 3 new Mercedes-BenzActros cars were purchased for transporting raw materials.
In 2011, TEPPA won a tender for the supply of cereals for CarlsbergUkraine breweries. For more than three years many types of beer produced by these plants were brewed from pearled barley of TM TEPPA.
The foreign market was replenished with Kyrgyzstan, Croatia, Germany and Slovakia.
In the fall of 2013 the Cossacks of TEPPA, as part of the Pechenizke Pole ethno-festival, cooked 2200 liters of oatmeal in a cast-iron cauldron with a capacity of 3.7 cubic meters, thus setting a record in Ukraine and in the world.
By tradition, every 5 years of the company’s life begin with a major expansion of its infrastructure.
In 2013-2014 a modern elevator complex with grain drying Italian equipment was built on the territory of the enterprise, working on a unique technology developed by TEPPA. Its essence is that according to the Italian project the grain dryer does not work on gas and fuel oil but on steam produced by our own biomass boiler house during the combustion of grain husks. By the way, the company has saved more than 7 million cubic meters of gas for Ukraine during 7 years of biomass boiler house’s operation which produces heat and energy for production needs as well as for heating of premises and greenhouses.
The company’s export potential has grown at the expense of Southeast Asia countries, Hong Kong and Thailand as well as Yemen and Poland.
Since 2014, due to military action in Donetsk and Luhansk regions and the Crimea’s annexation, the company has lost 25% of the domestic sales market.
At the same time, the area of product export has steadily expanded ― in 2014 new customers from Panama, Sweden, Estonia and Montenegro appeared.
In the same year, a greenhouse complex was built. Vegetables certified by the Organic Standard system are being grown in the greenhouse all year round.
In 2015, the company purchased and put into operation Italian packing equipment of high-precision dosing.
During the ethno-festival TEPPA-FEST 2015 dedicated to the Day of the Food Industry Workers, a new world’s and Ukraine’s record was set by the company’s employees. In tsar-kazan (royal cauldron) was cooked the world’s largest porridge “Kulish of the world” (millet porridge with meat and vegetables) weighing 3000 kg that was eaten by 12 thousand people during the festival.
The product export area was replenished with Malaysia and the African country of Togo.
In 2016, a radical modernization of the weight products warehouse was carried out ― modern rack systems were installed. Due to the active expansion of sales markets, increasing customer requirements for products and fierce competition in 2016, a quality control department was created at the enterprise.
TEPPA began supplying rye flakes for cookies production to Mondelis Ukraine, a member of the MondelēzInternational group of companies ― the world’s largest producer of chocolate products, cookies and sweets.
In 2016, TEPPA began to participate in tender purchases through the ProZorro system. The company became a multiple winner, and supplied goods of its own production to state organizations as well as to medical and educational institutions.
TM TEPPA products are supplied to the Ukrainian naval forces.
India, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa conclude the third dozen countries to be supplied with TEPPA products.
By 2017, production lines were “tired” of making oatmeal for the whole world. The number of failures in the products quality was increasing.
The company’s specialists quickly responded to this situation and therefore in the same year a complete modernization of the flakes production lines was carried out. The company’s techno park was replenished with the equipment of the famous German machine-building concern Streckel & Schrader and the Ukrainian company Olis.
China, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Scotland were the first to be listed in the fourth dozen importing countries.
The infrastructure of the enterprise includes:
The plant has two certified laboratories: for raw materials and for products.
The range of products counts more than 100 items. Cereals, grain and flakes are packed in different types of packaging weighing from 38 grams to 1 ton. New product types were developed and released: granola in a doy-pack and a cup.
The company’s products are sold on four continents (Europe, Asia, North America, Africa). The geography of exports was expanded with the countries of West Asia (Lebanon and Qatar), North Africa (Tunisia) and East Asia (South Korea), West Africa (Burkina Faso), East Africa (Djibouti).
The quality of TM TEPPA products is trusted by more than 100 of our partners in 53 countries.
But the most important value of TEPPA is people. Today more than 400 people work in 25 divisions of the enterprise.
2019 started for the company with purchase and install of equipment for the “fat-free” corn grit production. New types of products were developed and released: soft wheat pasta, wheat flour, flakes with health-improving additives, and durum wheat pasta.
The product export area was replenished with countries such as Guinea, Bahrain, Mauritius as well as Bulgaria and Morocco.
As part of the production process improvement a belt conveyor was purchased and installed in the summer of 2020 as well as a noria bucket elevator to transport products from oat lines to the “Start” line.
TEPPA always cares about the quality of products and for this purpose we annually update and purchase innovative modern equipment. In 2020 MEYER color sorter was purchased and installed. After going through the apparatus at least once, the cereal is cleaned to 99.9% purity rate. In the same year, contracts were concluded for the products supply to New Zealand, Turkey, Algeria and Egypt.
In 2021, the company installed a semi-automatic high-performance packing machine. We also purchased pea grinding machines and an air separator designed to separate the peeling products of cereal crops and clean the grain from aerodynamic light impurities.
In the same year, the vehicle fleet of the enterprise was significantly updated: 4 MAN cars and 3 semi-trailers were purchased.
In the fall of 2021, once again TEPPA once again set a record in Ukraine and in the world. As part of the ethno-festival Oleksiivska Fortetsya (Fortress of Oleksiivka) an organic gluten-free corn porridge with pumpkin and raisins in volume of 2500 liters was cooked in a branded cast-iron cauldron. The record’s purpose is to popularize the production of organic food in Ukraine and support the school nutrition reform as well as a healthy lifestyle.
The sales market was replenished with Japan, Belgium, Brazil and Venezuela.
It smelled of a war in the world… Nobody could believe it, but on February 24, 2022, it turned out that crises and COVID were not the worst things that could have happened to us. The war came to our country, to our home.
Despite all the horrors and new challenges, TEPPA managed to preserve the team and work steadily. New logistic and export chains were established, we even managed to improve them somewhat.
In 2022, the Company opened a granulation line and introduced a new type of products – a hygienic filler for pet toilets.
We purchased a 525 kW generator for the stable operation of the enterprise during the blackout periods.
The grain steamer variable action was replaced with a model of continuous action and due to the winning of tender for the USAID project, we modernized the oat line.
In the same year, the first TEPPA Market brand store was built and opened.
Contracts for the product supply to Spain, Albania, Italy and Nigeria were signed.
Under the conditions of the ongoing war, TEPPA continued to work steadily. Even the 2022-2023 marketing year as a result gave an increase in export by 25 percent compared to the last year and turned out to be the most fruitful year of the fifth five-year plan.
Due to the received grant from USAID, the modernization of the flake line and cereal line continued.
With the support of the USAID Agency for International Development, an expanded agro-forum “Contract cultivation: Building a profitable partnership between processors and farmers!” took place on the basis of the enterprise.
