Entrepreneurship Support

Problem Situation
Since 2011, Lavka Tradytsii has been collaborating with small local producers and farmers, helping them bring their products to the Silpo supermarket chain. Finding new partners from across Ukraine is a constant part of our work.
However, we noticed that for small producers, working with a large company often feels intimidating. Almost every new partner came to us with the same set of questions: what documents are needed to start, how to obtain certification, how to organize logistics and finances, how to label and market their product.
This pattern revealed a systemic issue – aspiring food entrepreneurs lacked basic knowledge necessary to develop their businesses in compliance with legal and market standards. This gap slowed down the emergence of new brands and complicated their path to Silpo’s shelves.

Solution
In 2019, we decided not only to consult each producer individually but to create a structured educational program – the School for Food Entrepreneurs.
The school’s goal is to provide new producers with practical knowledge to help them confidently enter the food market. The program is built around the most common questions we received from farmers and craft producers.

We developed six training modules:

1. Starting Your Business – trendwatching, audience research, and finding inspiration for product development.
2. Product Quality – standards, HACCP requirements, essential documentation, and labeling rules.
3. Legal and Logistics Aspects – copyright, contracts, and distribution models.
4. Financial Literacy – basic financial models, P&L, and business cases.
5. Marketing – from branding and naming to social media strategy.

The program is updated every semester. For example, in 2022 we organized a competition with grants from Silpo and Mastercard for the best students, and later that year we ran a three-day intensive focused on Sustainability in the Food Business.

The course is paid but affordable – we wanted producers to perceive it as an investment in their own growth. We also introduced grant opportunities: participants could submit a motivation letter to study for free.

Each semester we update the content, adapting it to market trends, challenges, and wartime realities.

Results
Since 2019, we have held eight semesters of training with over 300 participants.

Many graduates have become Lavka Tradytsii residents and now supply their products to the Silpo network. Some launched their own production facilities, entered new markets, built teams, and continue to develop Ukraine’s small food business sector.

The project helped create a community of new food entrepreneurs, streamline communication between small producers and a large retail chain, and systematically improve the quality of local products.

We are proud of this project – after every semester we receive an overwhelming amount of positive feedback. The school has become a platform for knowledge exchange, entrepreneurship development, and support for local producers.