The founder of the Bakhetle grocery chain, Muslima Latypova, talks about how to create a store “without Soviet rudeness”

With the story of Muslim Latypova, who founded a large retail chain in Tatarstan, Forbes Woman opens a series of materials about entrepreneurs building their businesses in Russian regions

Muslima Latypova, dressed in a strict black and white dress, accompanied by a tall security guard, confidently enters the Bakhetle supermarket in the center of Kazan, nods to two employees, looks businesslike at all the counters and display cases, makes a couple of comments to the approaching manager and stops at the baking department. Latypova is the owner of this supermarket, the general director and owner of the Bakhetle chain. Now it is one of the largest retailers in Russia with a turnover of 8 billion rubles: 10 stores have been opened in Kazan, one each in Naberezhnye Chelny and Nizhnekamsk, and already four in Moscow (six more are planned in the near future).

Behind the display cases with dozens of types of delicious pies, you can see the kitchen and the chefs in white caps - this is Bakhetle’s own production, which is also called the “superbrand of homemade food.”

“This is what distinguishes Bakhetle from other networks - production. Here is peremyach - Tatar pie with meat, our signature eipechmak made from fresh dough. And of course, chak-chak, but the food, of course, is not only Tatar,” says Latypova.

Our own production accounts for 40% of the chain’s total products (and in Moscow - from 50% to 60%). “Bakhetle”, in principle, takes quantity – the store’s assortment line is about 40,000 items.

Thirty-five years ago, young Muslima, according to her, even in her wildest dreams did not imagine that she would become a successful entrepreneur and owner of a large regional supermarket chain. But at the same time she says that “all my life I knew that I would be engaged in trade, I didn’t even think about anything else.” Latypova’s parents also worked in trade. She herself was already a store director at the age of 25. In 1991, she opened several wholesale outlets (dealing with confectionery products). I raised my daughter, tried to earn money, but never dreamed of anything big.

In the 1990s, Latypova decided to go into retail and open a store. Moreover, such that it does not look like what is in Kazan. To be “bright, spacious, like a palace and like abroad.” The entrepreneur still remembers how she first came to Greece, and while everyone was relaxing at the seaside or going on excursions, Latypova went shopping. “I was fascinated by the number of cheeses and sausages,” recalls Muslima, “by the slicers that thinly slice the cheeses. And I wanted to do the same in my store.”

However, Latypova’s goals were more global than building a successful business or developing a network. She dreamed of “freeing women from kitchen slavery.” “You can take care of your family and not stand at the stove for hours,” says the director of Bakhetle. “Professionals should cook, but we have placed this responsibility on people.”

Latypova herself doesn’t know how to cook and doesn’t like it (she once made a cake with margarine for her husband and forgot to melt it - she ended up burning it all), so she considers Soviet cooking a useful invention. And in his supermarkets he buys only ready-made food.

When I got married, I didn’t even know how to cook pasta. Now she is divorced, her husband no longer needs to cook, but there are enough household chores - Latypova’s daughter has two sons. It is with her grandchildren that Latypova tries to spend all her free time, which, however, is very little - only Sundays. “This is a difficult business, although it is considered a woman’s business, but here you need to control everything,” says Latypova. “In business there is no division into men’s and women’s; these are not children’s toys.”

It was not easy to build the network: the first Bakhetle supermarket, against all odds, was opened in December of the crisis year of 1998. Moreover, it was not only difficult. According to Latypova, the hardest thing was to change psychology. It was necessary to open a completely different store, without Soviet rudeness, with a different attitude to the quality of products.

And then plans appeared to expand the network. “My compatriots often asked me when our food would be in Moscow,” recalls Latypova. “And in preparation for the celebration of the thousandth anniversary of Kazan, many famous people came to the city, they were treated to our dishes, and many asked when we would be in Moscow.” As a result, since 2006, four stores of the Bakhetle chain have been opened in Moscow.

Latypova’s office looks like Kazan itself after the millennium celebration: everything is in gilding and velvet and with furniture made of expensive wood. Above the table hangs a portrait of Muslima Latypova with the former President of the Republic of Tatarstan Mintimir Shaimiev.

From the way the director is greeted, the way people nod in the corridors and even on the street, you can immediately feel that matriarchy reigns in Latypova’s company and everyone knows who’s boss. Therefore, she never thought about moving to Moscow.

“I’ve been going to Moscow for many years,” says Latypova. “But I never wanted to live there.” This is where my roots are. In Tatarstan, people are very attached to their land.”

Partly because of this affection, Latypova launched a large-scale charity project - the Bakhetle social canteens, in which more than 1,500 people are fed free lunches every day - children from low-income families, orphans, the disabled, and those whose incomes are below the subsistence level. Now there are six such canteens in Kazan.

Supermarkets are only part of the Bakhetle empire. Latypova also has her own development business (four shopping centers in Kazan), three restaurants of Chinese and Japanese cuisine “Kanpai”, Cherry Lady jewelry boutiques, which are managed by Latypova’s daughter Elvira Kharlamova. For her daughter, Latypova wanted a “less complicated business.”

She herself admits that she has always worked too much. “My mother scolds me for being so overwhelmed with work,” says 59-year-old Latypova, “she raised four children, worked, and cooked for the whole family. But times are changing."

Homemade food worth 8 billion