When we search for Bellina.mk, a modern, colorful and playful e-shop with a very friendly tone appears. But what exactly is Bellina.MK and what is the idea behind the brand?

Kiril: Bellina. mk is an idea for a modern, contemporary and healthy lifestyle. To change the lifestyle for the better and to raise awareness of the environment, animals, the planet, and our contribution to a better tomorrow for all of us.

We have been around since the beginning of 2016 when we started as a humble online store for perfumes and natural and organic cosmetics. “Bellina” in Italian means beautiful, and graceful, and is also the name of a type of orchid, which is used in the production of perfumes and cosmetics.

From the very beginning, we are the two co-founders of the Bellina brand and idea, which is continuously growing and developing and currently has 24 employees. Bellina was and still is a family business, which we are particularly proud of, and we consider all colleagues, regardless of position and hierarchy in the company, to be part of our family.

The desire to bring a part of modern European values, a way of functioning, and a way of life to Skopje and Macedonia, as well as the desire to contribute to the raising of collective consciousness, was and still is the main motive for our daily progress.

The concept of our sales chain, our famous “Bellina Bio Shops”, is new in the Macedonian market. The offer of exclusively natural and organic products in one place, whose quality guarantee is confirmed by the most renowned European certifiers, is something that cannot be found anywhere else but here. We are usually used to seeing sections for organic food or natural cosmetics (if they exist at all) in small sections of the sales facilities of supermarkets, drugstores, pharmacies, etc., while no one but us has an offer, where the entire assortment, without exceptions, follows them those standards. We are particularly proud and pleased when visitors and consumers from Greece, Serbia, Germany, France, Denmark, and many other countries visit our premises and state with delight that the concept looks quite “European” and modern, something that is a real rarity in our spaces.

When we started in 2016, the shortage was drastically greater than it is today, although we believe that even today there is still a lot of room for progress in our market, both in terms of online sales and the culture and habits of online shopping, as well as the choice of organic products and a healthy lifestyle. Macedonian shopping habits have improved significantly, especially since 2020, but we are still far behind the European average and standards, so there is still a lot of work to be done in this field to raise consumer awareness.

Our business model is unique in our area, and we would say even wider because it is not often that you see a symbiosis of several activities within one company. We are not only importers and distributors of organic food, cosmetics, and supplements, but at the same time, we also have our own sales chain of specialized “bio” stores for organic products. We are official agents and importers for all products, without exception, that we distribute and sell, and we also have a very modern concept for online sales, marketing, and building “brand awareness” for us and our brands.

A large number of world brands for natural and organic cosmetics and food are visible on your e-store, and for some of them, you are exclusive representatives. How many brands are part of www.bellina.mk, how many products are available, and which unique products can only be found at your shops?

Stefan: We started working with Organique and Urtekram, brands from Poland and Denmark, which are both pioneers in their countries in the field of natural and organic cosmetics with decades of experience and tradition, and Urtekram is also the largest and best-known producer of organic food in all of Scandinavia.

We currently have over 4500 products from 86 brands, which can be grouped into three main categories – organic food, natural and organic cosmetics, and organic supplements. Our offer is constantly growing and increasing, both in quantity and quality. For almost all brands we are exclusive importers and distributors for Macedonia, while for more and more of them, thanks to our positive results, we even get regional contracts for Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Albania, and Kosovo. Manufacturers and brands are mainly from the EU, and we have the largest number of partners from France, Germany, and the Baltic countries.

It really has a number of unique products, which usually cannot be found anywhere else in our market. Almost every category has something unique, such as the organic and ecological tampons and pads from the Italian brand Organyc, which are also suitable for women in labor, unique of this type in our country. We currently have the only type of certified ecological baby diapers on our market – the Danish brand Bambo Nature, certified organic cosmetics with active ingredients from the Russian True Alchemy, then the French Novexpert and Eau Thermale Jonzac, which are the only dermatological and simultaneously certified organic products in Macedonia. Organic food has hundreds of products, which in our country can only be found in conventional non-organic form, and real organic supplements with a certificate is also a novelty on our market. Also, a very important aspect of our offer is that almost 80% of our product portfolio is vegan, all without exception “cruelty-free”, while a large part of the food also consists of gluten-free, lactose-free, no added sugar products, as well as completely without sugar in the composition. With this, we aim to satisfy the needs of all our consumers, regardless of the reason and background for their choice of products.

Define www.bellina.mk with five words through which you will describe the existence and operation, as well as the idea, philosophy, mission, and vision of Bellina.mk.

Kiril: Health is one of the priorities, if not the highest priority of all of us in life. But there are still a large number of people who do not take anything special to preserve and improve their own health condition, even though they want it. Our goal is to get people used to leading a lifestyle that will help them achieve that desire for good health.

At the same time, an important aspect is raising the collective consciousness, not only of our consumers and clients but also of the entire population. Awareness of ecology, awareness, and consideration for animals and the living environment, our respect for the planet, and the pursuit of a better tomorrow for all of us.

Transparency is one of our most important strengths. No hidden messages, no false promises, simple and transparent. We always try to be as transparent as possible about the origin of our products, their composition, their method of production, and everything else that we would like our consumers to know.

Our idea is to become a brand, which will be synonymous with quality, trust, and a modern lifestyle. And not only in Macedonia, but also beyond.

Responsibility towards all our consumers, all our colleagues, and employees, towards all our partners, both domestic and foreign, is the main reason for the success story we have been building over the years.

What is your first milestone, what are you most proud of in your work so far, and what are your future goals and plans for Bellina.mk?

Stefan: Entering the Serbian market and our first successful contract with a large and important partner outside of Macedonia. This was a real reason for euphoria and joy, a great recognition of years of painstaking and hard work and commitment, as well as confirmation that we are on the right path!

We constantly strive and advocate for the improvement of our way of working, we always believe that there can be better and we actively work towards the improvement of all our processes. However, if we have to single out one moment, which has significantly improved our functioning, it would be the successful implementation of the ERP system. Through it, complete and detailed records of all our trade processes are kept, from the import itself, until the sale to the end consumer, and it has significantly improved and increased our capacities, to professionally respond to the challenges and tasks arising from the extensive range of products and brands.

Today we are proud to say that we are also present in the first EU market for us – Slovenia, something that was not at all easy and simple to achieve, and we are in the final stage of negotiations for entering the markets in Croatia, BiH, and Bulgaria. However, our ambitions go beyond the Balkans, beyond our region, towards other developed European markets. The future will show how far we will reach, but our desire and ambitions are great and we firmly believe in ourselves.

We would not be able to talk about rapid development, and accelerated dynamics of progress if we did not have an appropriate personnel policy. This is one of the essential elements of every company, so we also follow the needs for expansion of our team very carefully, so that despite our rapid growth, there are no differences in the quality of services and professionalism, for which we are recognized as among our customers, as well as with the collaborators.

The constant offer of novelties is part of our DNA and something we are recognized by our consumers. We have a whole team, which is constantly working on analyzing new products, brands, categories, etc., and we regularly visit the most renowned and largest world fairs for organic products, all in order to bring the latest trends to the domestic market in a timely manner.

Kiril, Stefan, we are grateful for your answers and look forward to your success. 🚀