Kokito is a Georgian brand, which offers its customers the opportunity to buy wood bicycles. Kokito’s founders - Marika Grigolishvili and Laliko Gogiberidze are participants of the digital acceleration project- starta, which is created by SMEDA. In this interview, the founders are talking about their company.

• Where did the idea come from and when did Kokito’s history begin?

Marika: We have a furniture business - „Euro Style“, which was created about 15 years ago, the founder is my father- Antoni Grigolishvili. About 3 years ago, my father brought over a wood bicycle from a toy exhibition. Our kids were brought up on these bicycles and the idea was born from this fact. The business of toys allows you to make serial production and bring it to export. We had much broader plans for this direction. 

After voicing this idea, we actively got involved and started working on the models. We made 4 types of wooden pedal-less bicycles, the analogs of which did not exist on the market at that stage in Georgia. We also added various models, children's animals, and cars. After a lot of approval, we took a more serious look at this business and started thinking not only about the Georgian market but also about the direction of export. We took part in the Nuremberg exhibition, where we actively communicated with our German partners.

• Why is the existence of "Kokito" necessary for the Georgian market today?

Marika: Our main value is that everything is environmentally safe and eco-friendly. We use only natural Georgian wood, we process it with water-based, environmentally safe paints. Low-quality toys are a great danger for children, they cause many diseases. As time goes on it becomes even more important to use a toy, which is safe for children’s health. These toys are quite expensive and only a narrow segment had access to them. We wanted to make such a production that would lower the cost a little more and even a higher percentage of the population in the Georgian market would have access to them.

• The biggest difficulty and challenge you have faced in the process of doing business.

Marika: The challenge, I will talk about, has not been overcome yet. Since we had the base, the knowledge, and about 25 years of woodworking experience, this part was relatively easy for us. The difficulty lies in the fact that if we talk about exports, after about 7 months of the negotiation process, we have reached an agreement only now. All this is stretched in time and space. We need resources for production to survive and of course, personal investment is very important. There are state aid programs, but they aren’t enough. The production assembly process is the biggest difficulty and so is the negotiation process. If some other business is already profitable in 6 months on average, this direction takes years.

Laliko: Also, even in the Georgian market, it is not easy to enter large networks. The fact that it is a startup and Georgian, big chain stores do not take this into account and do not support such companies for development.

Marika: Competing with imported toys is also a big challenge because they are imported from China and are much cheaper.
 

• Please, Talk to us about SMEDA's role in your business development.

Laliko: First of all, thank you very much to SMEDA, for the information and lectures they provided- it was really important to us. There were quite well-written courses for beginner businessmen and startups. Also, SMEDA made me realize that we don't have to do everything.

Marika and I were everything in this company and we were doing everyone's function. SMEDA showed us the need to delegate, thus giving us more free time, which we use in business development. Also, they gave us a lot of good ideas on networking. We further developed Facebook and Instagram. We are going to make our website as well.

Marika: This 6-month SMEDA course was, in fact, a process of learning all the areas, which are necessary for a manager: finance, human resource management, process management, fundraising, marketing, and digital marketing, all these modules were very important. We shared the functions, Laliko and I. I decided to focus more on production. What does the organization need? All this seems to have been sorted out in my head, it gave me a lot of theoretical knowledge, which I already use in practice. Many thanks to SMEDA for this.

• Share your current news and future with us.

Marika: we have been making negotiations with the Germans since January, we have been talking to very large toy enterprises, which are interested in moving production from China to Georgia and Eastern countries in general, because of the production costs and the time factor. Among them, we had guests from Germany and they visited our factory. We have decided to produce products under these big brands, which will be exported to EU countries and sold under their brands. This allows us to avoid the barrier of certification and standards. As for the future plan, we want to increase production so much that we shift all the resources to the toys. Currently, we have signed only one contract and we have a deadline at the end of September for the delivery of this product. Then we have to do 5-6 projects by January.

• What advice/recommendation would you give to people who want to start a business but find it difficult to take this step?

Marika: Both Laliko and I made a lot of sacrifices to have our business. It's very difficult from that point of view, you have to constantly have this inner perseverance, you have to constantly start over after every failure. It is much more comfortable to find a job and work steadily, but as time goes by, you become more aware of the resources, and opportunities, which are better to devote to your business. In that way, you achieve development much faster, the vision is bigger and you have much more motivation to spend your time and energy on your work.

Laliko: A person who has any opportunity and has a chance to do his/her own business, it is better to spend his time and energy on it and not on someone else's business, because not at first, but in the long run it will be much more appreciated. It is always better to be an entrepreneur than an employed person.