Plovdiv-based “Camco” exports its products to over 50 countries on 4 continents
Founded in 1991 as a small family business by Hristo and Kamila Dramovi, today “Camco” produces 6 own brands, the most popular of which is Victoria Beauty. At the same time, the company is a distributor of the products of over 32 other brands of cosmetics, perfumery and household chemicals of major global enterprises. Recently “Camco” has focused its production on the implementation of its second contract with the American giant Amazon. The Bulgarian company has already produced under the Amazon brand before.
The credit for the contract with the company of billionaire Jeff Bezos goes entirely to Hristo Dramov’s eldest son – Ivo, who joined his parents in their efforts to develop the company a few years ago. He also takes responsibility for their expansion in foreign markets and relations with international partners, and the company currently exports products to more than 50 countries on four continents. In addition to new partnerships, with Ivo the company’s turnover marked an impressive growth of over 50% in 2020 compared to a year earlier and reached just over 16 million leva. According to Hristo Dramov, however, their greatest success is that they succeed together, and the biggest goal is for “Camco” to survive for at least a few more generations.
The history of the company begins with coffee trade, while Hristo Dramov was still a student. Soon, however, the family reoriented itself and began trading with perfumes, and even for a short time in the period 93-95 was an importer of Unilever products for Bulgaria. The contact was difficult and took a lot of effort, but in the end they managed to break through the Dutch office of the international company.
Back in the mid-90s, the company made its first steps in the production and establishment of its own brand Victoria Beauty. They saw an empty market niche for quality hair care products in the low price segment and started producing shampoos. Soon after, however, the international giants in the segment reconsidered their market strategy and repositioned their products from the middle to the low price segment. This makes the Bulgarian company reorient itself and focus on the production of other types of products.
“You can’t fight L’Oreal and Nivea at the level of marketing budgets. Your chance is to offer a good, different niche product, with an excellent price-quality ratio,” commented Kamila Dramova. Following the dynamics of the market, the product range of “Camco” is constantly increasing and they are gradually improving formulas, recipes and technology. They decided to experiment with a new series of products based on snail mucus, which contains many of the substances known and used in cosmetics. Initially, the raw material was imported from France, but 10 years ago they built the first Bulgarian farm for organic snail farming, which helped them close the production cycle and ensure high quality of their products.
Although they started as a distributor, currently about 80% of their revenue comes from sales of their own brands, and nearly half of their production is exported. Their largest foreign market at the moment is South Africa, and another large part of their production goes to Australia. The company is extremely well represented in the entire Balkan region, and in some segments is among the leaders in our neighboring markets.
source: Capital
photos: Yane Golev