“I am quite a flexible director. One can always come to terms with me. Everything is discussable with the exception of issues touching honour and self-respect. In this case I am highly principled and uncompromising”

 

The story of my life began 36 years ago in a suburb of a beautiful Georgian town of Samtredia named Kulashi. I was born on June 9, 1974 in a family with wonderful parents: Isak and Nani Elashvili. Unfortunately, my father died when he was under 23 years old, and I was very little then. However, my memory still keeps childhood impressions of Dad: a strong-willed, handsome, and very kind man. My brother Georgy, my sister Maka, and I were raised by our mother who guarded and fostered us and conveyed the general knowledge of life to us. Our grandfather and grandmothers helped her.

Like any kid, I went to school when I was six. At that time, it was prestigious to send children to Russian schools. My brother, sister and I also went to a good Russian school that was located quite far from our house. Simultaneously, I was taking musiclessons. Although I have not become a pianist, I like signing, especially, in the company of friends. It is true, more often other people sing for me, and I immensely enjoy that. I finished school with good marks; mathematics, chemistry, and sports were my favorite subjects. The choice of higher educational establishments to enter was then not as wide as nowadays. And it was not Moscow where various educational institutions were concentrated! I decided to acquire basic knowledge in economics and went to Tbilisi Industrial College and upon finishing it I went to university to continue my education. I passed the entrance exams to Georgian Institute of Managers, Faculty of Economics, contrary to the general trend to go to medical institutions – I did not want to become a doctor.

I had to study by correspondence, as I had moved to Moscow at the age of 18 in order to go into business. I felt a strong desire for activity and creativity. I had to find my way in life and help my family, sister, and mother. My brother and I decided to start an independent life; it was at that time that an idea to set up our own business came into our mind. In the early 1990s, I came to Moscow where my brother was studying. We began importing manufactured goods from major European countries and then took up distribution of chocolate products, such as Ferrero, Rafaello, and Kinder Surprise. It was both a useful experience and a serious, lucrative business. Everything was proceeding according to plan. We got our first big, as we then believed, money, a solid capital, which we wished to invest in a no less serious business.

In the 1990s, we started to look for new business areas and settled on catering characterized by cordiality and social nature. Who would know better than me, born in the generous and glorious country of Georgia, the secrets of hospitality, feast and respect to the guest?!

In 1995, I married a nice girl, whom I hope to live with to my dying day. Haya presented me with three wonderful children: a daughter Anna and twins – the daughter Cindy and the son Itsik.

In 1996, my brother Georgy, my brother-in-law Roman and I founded a company, which we originally named Pizza Sbarro and then renamed as Brothers & Company – it became the exclusive franchisee of Sbarro Inc. in Russia, the CIS and Baltic countries. In1997, we opened the first Sbarro restaurant in Krasnoprudnaya St. Thus a new stage in my life commenced – the one I had dreamed of when I was a child. I became a businessman, the president of a big company that now operates a hundred restaurants, among them Sbarro, Eastern Bazaar, Bash-na- Bash and Viaggio. Our business does real good to the city, its inhabitants and guests, 3500 company employees and, of course, to us, the shareholders.

I had always kept in my mind that I should receive a second higher education. I managed that in 2005 – I graduated from the Law Institute under Moscow Economics and Law Academy, Faculty of Law.

Today our company  G.M.R. Planet of Hospitality operates throughout Russia: in Moscow, Moscow region (Krasnogorsk, Domodedovo, Kotelniki, Mytischi, Khimki, Korolev, Balashikha), St. Petersburg, Samara, Kazan, Krasnodar, Kaliningrad, Yaroslavl, Nizhniy Novgorod, Voronezh, Ulyanovsk and Yekaterinburg, Naberezhnye Chelny, Omsk, Volgograd, Togliatti, Cheboksary, Vladimir, Rostov-on-Don, Sochi, Novosibirsk, Ivanovo as well as in Ukraine (Kiev, Donetsk), Kazakhstan (Almaty), Prague and other. I am still engaged in real estate – a business I took up when I was young – and distribution. This kind of business is more profitable but less interesting to me than catering, where a creative approach is important – and creativity is just what I want to do.

I plan to keep on learning, perfecting myself, and go – or, rather – “run” forward. Every individual should work toward improvement. This is an internal demand. Today I have things to be proud of. I have achieved everything I own now by hard work of mine, my partners, that is my brothers, and my team, as well as owing to our passionate desire and persistence. Believe me the portion of luck in this is not large at all.

It may sound immodest but I think that my biography is something worthy.

I do not break the regulations, I do not run against the red light, but when the green light is on, I run, and run, and run … forward. And I live when I run.