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Essen Production
Essen Production AG has made mayonnaise in Elabuga since 1998, starting on a used line in a rented canteen. Its confectionery line in Naberezhnye Chelny grew from 560 tonnes in 2012 to 22,145 tonnes in 2015, KazanFirst reported. When its retail arm failed, the factory side guaranteed the creditors' settlement.
From Elabuga to Novosibirsk
From a rented canteen to a factory that outlasted its shops
According to BUSINESS Online, the Essen hypermarkets closed in January 2020, and the retail company that ran them, Optovik (Оптовик), was declared bankrupt on 13 May. Its head, Vadim Makheev, had built the mayonnaise producer Essen Production AG (Эссен Продакшн АГ) with Leonid Baryshev (Леонид Барышев). That company was separate, with plants of its own, and it did not walk away.
A used line in a rented canteen
Production began in 1998 in Elabuga, in Tatarstan, on a used mayonnaise line installed in a rented former canteen of 150 square metres. The line started producing on 21 August, the day Baryshev recalls as the day the crisis hit. A year later a trademark application was filed for Makheev (Махеевъ), the name that still sits on the jars, and the line was producing 500 tonnes a month. Baryshev told Agroinvestor in 2019 that the brand “was born intuitively, like many trademarks in the 1990s.”
The business grew in steps. In 2000 it moved into its own premises of 1,500 square metres, and ketchup joined mayonnaise in the range. In September 2001 the two founders’ sole-proprietor firms merged into one joint-stock company, Essen Production AG, and Baryshev became its general director, the post he still holds.
A hypermarket chain on the side
In May 2003 the first Essen hypermarkets opened in Elabuga, Almetyevsk and Naberezhnye Chelny. They were run by Optovik, under Makheev, while Baryshev ran the production company. The two businesses carried the same name, but they were separate companies, and that distinction was to matter nearly two decades later.
From sauces to sweets
The factory side kept widening its range. A sauce plant opened in Novosibirsk, in Siberia, in 2010, and jams joined the Makheev line. In 2012 the company opened the ESSEN confectionery factory in Naberezhnye Chelny, its move into sweets, fourteen years after the first mayonnaise line. KazanFirst reported that the confectionery line there went from 560 tonnes in 2012 to 22,145 tonnes in 2015, a rise of about 40-fold. The figure covers that one line, not the whole group.
Makheev mayonnaise went on sale in China in 2014, and the company describes itself as the lead Russian exporter to Europe. In 2019 its ESSEN confectionery won its first client in Iraq.
What it makes and where
Essen Production is a manufacturer. Its sauce plant and operating headquarters stand on Okruzhnoe shosse in Elabuga, where mayonnaise, ketchup and jams are made under the Makheev name. The ESSEN confectionery is made at the factory in Naberezhnye Chelny, and a second sauce site works in Novosibirsk. The registered office has been in Tolyatti since 2015.
The hypermarkets were not part of that list. They were run by Optovik, a separate retail company, while the production company sold in Russia through partner retail. Mayonnaise has been the base product since the first line in 1998, with ketchup added in 2000 and jams in 2010.
A debt paid and a rival ahead
The company’s own history says that in 2016 Makheev mayonnaise held 70 per cent of the Tatarstan market and 20 per cent of Russian output. The position did not go unchallenged. According to BUSINESS Online, a court opened bankruptcy observation over a debt in March 2017, and the observation ended on 12 May 2017 after the debt was paid. In the first half of 2018, Nielsen data reported by RBC showed Sloboda (Слобода) overtaking Makheev in mayonnaise.
The retail company fails
The retail company had run the hypermarkets since 2003, seventeen years in all. According to BUSINESS Online, the chain closed in January 2020, and Optovik was declared bankrupt on 13 May. Optovik’s creditors were owed by a company that carried the Essen name, and the production company, which carried it too, stood behind them.
On 31 August 2021 a settlement was agreed with Optovik’s creditors, and Essen Production guaranteed it. BUSINESS Online reported the settlement, and Lenta.ru corroborated it. The retail company’s failure ended in an agreement that the production company had underwritten, rather than in a second collapse.
Where the company stands
In November 2023 its products appeared on the Tatarstan stand at the OIC Halal Expo in Istanbul, and talks followed with partners from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Libya. In its 2024 results the company reported exports to 42 countries, by the company’s own account. Baryshev has run the production company throughout, and the Makheev name is still the one on its jars. Its own record lists the Prodexpo-2021 Best Enterprise prize and three category wins at Marka No.1 in Russia 2021.
The company is held by the founders’ two families. Interfax, citing 2023 filings, reported in August 2025 that the Baryshev family holds 57 per cent and the Makheev family 43 per cent. Leonid Baryshev has been its general director since September 2001.
Researched 44 sources in Russian.