About us

The history of Kyiv Margarine Factory begins in 1947 when the decision to allocate a land plot for the construction of a margarine plant was made. Later the plant was reorganized into Kyiv Margarine Factory (KMF). For more than 70 years of its existence, the KMF has become a part of Ukrainian history, a living symbol of several generations and true pride of the country. Although the range of product choice and the technology of production have been substantially changed over that time, the quality and taste of real, legendary, and so dear margarine and mayonnaise remain unaltered.

Table margarine and mayonnaise “Provansal” were the first products manufactured in 1949 by the factory. The new-built factory’s production capacity provided the output of 6000 tons of table margarine and 400 tons of mayonnaise per year. At that time already a considerable proportion of technological equipment was of German origin (weighting-and-packaging machines for packing 200 grams of margarine, refrigerators, vacuum components, deodorizers).

In 1951 the margarine filling line reached the highest rates of its capacity. At that time the factory produced table margarine in the range (blocks of 10 or 20 kilograms), nonmilk margarine (blocks of 10 or 20 kilograms), non-typical margarine for sugar confectionary and baking industry, cooking fats (hydro fats, vegetable lard, combined fats made of the mixture of vegetable and animal fats), mayonnaise.

The KMF has always been one of the industry leaders and strived to meet new market demands. In 1985 a new margarine packaging line and equipment for packaging mayonnaise in plastic bags were installed. It allowed to significantly increase production output, ease its transportation, and at the same time decrease its cost price. The factory’s manufacturing capacity reached 50 000 tons of margarine products and 5 000 tons of mayonnaise per year.

In 1993 the range of margarine products was expanded by an extremely popular soft liquid margarine that became widespread among Ukrainians.

In 1998 Oleh Ivanovych Oleksenko, an outstanding individual and a talented businessman, became the Head of the Supervisory Board of the Closed Joint-Stock Company “Kyiv Margarine Factory”. He was successful in all undertakings due to his extraordinary energy, liveliness, and desire for perfection. It took him just a year to completely re-equip the enterprise’s capacity and create a new brand.

It was Oleh Oleksenko who insisted on the necessity of creating a new trademark, which was to become a calling card of famous fat-and-oil products manufactured by Kyiv Margarine Factory since 1949. In 1999 the “Olkom” trademark was thus registered. The brand took its name from sunflower oil which is the basis of mayonnaise, mustard, spread, and margarine production. That is why “Olkom” should be understood as “OLiina KOMpaniia” which means “Sunflower Oil Company”. As early as 2000, the products were manufactured under the new name that quickly became in demand in Ukraine and overseas.

After the reconstruction of Kyiv Margarine Factory from 2005 to 2008, it reached a new qualitative level and became a modern competitive enterprise on the market:

• 2005 – additional oil deodorization facilities were introduced;
• 2006 – capacity on producing packaged margarine were increased;
• 2007 – the range of mayonnaise was modernized;
• 2008 – sunflower oil started being filled in PET bottles.

In 2009 in response to postcrisis requests of customers to be more practical and economical a brand “Smachno Yak Zavzhdy!” (“Tasty As Always”) was created. Its range – of product choice included the most in-demand products: mayonnaise, mayonnaise sauce, and table margarine. High quality of products, famous producer, reasonable price, convenient, and diverse packaging took the love and attention of Ukrainians at once.

2012 can be confidently called the year of innovations and breakthrough for the “Olkom” trademark. By setting high standards of quality and safety for its products, the quality and safety management systems were successfully elaborated and introduced in the factory. The whole manufacturing process was certified under the requirements of key management standards ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 22000:2005 and confirmed by respective certificates.

Moreover, being a trendsetter in the fat-and-oil industry, Olkom produced an innovative line of mayonnaise and sauce “Olkom Style” with different tastes.

Due to technological upgrading and production innovations, “Olkom” introduced progressive fats modification technologies in 2018 and it was the first in Ukraine who produced confirmed by the EU and the USA certificates of compliance low-trans fats and margarine for sugar confectionary, dairy, and baking industry. Using the above-mentioned ingredients as raw material, enterprises can manufacture products meeting the world quality and safety standards and the World Health Organization policy concerning cardiovascular disease prevention.

Furthermore, the company equipped the Kyiv Margarine Factory’s laboratory with modern machinery, namely a gas chromatograph and an instrument of nuclear magnetic resonance. This equipment is used to test margarine and edible fats for its conformity with the world standards on safe compounds presence created during industrial fat and oil crushing as well as for the conformity with customers’ requirements. Such stage is a part of a company’s strategy regarding the transition from ordinary margarine and edible fats to low-trans products. Having the opportunity to control quality by new parameters, improved recipes of margarine and edible fats offered to the B2B sector were introduced to the production.

Having won the All-Ukrainian competition “Brend Roku 2019” meaning “Brand of the Year 2019” (category “Food”) in nomination for “Breakthrough of the Year”, “Olkom” proved again its right to be considered as the “laboratory” of technological and marketing innovations in the fat-and-oil industry. After all, “Olkom” is a combination of classical and modern advanced technologies, a guaranty of quality and unique taste, a part of the soul of each involved in the production and of each great lover of authentic Ukrainian products.

Difficult 2020 proved to be lucky on new successful projects for Olkom Group. In January, new low-trans spreads with added natural butter were included in Olkom’s range product choice. In February, the Ukrainian customer was presented a new aromatic sunflower oil Healthy Style not having any analogue among national producers.

A while later, following today’s food trends the company launched new products in two food categories simultaneously. In June, the sandwich margarine Breakfast Style, created on the basis of natural vegetable oils and fats rich in vitamin E and useful fatty acids Omega-6 and Omega-9, appeared in Ukrainian groceries. After developing the products mentioned above, Ukrainians were able to taste a line of flavor mayonnaise sauces “Style” presented in Burger, Cheese, and Adjika variations.

Throughout the year the company realized some successful joint projects with the Yurko Hutsuliak graphic design studio. They designed the exterior appearance of vegetable spreads packagings and elaborated the rebranding plan of the “Smachno Yak Zavzhdy” trademark (“Tasty As Always”).

Beyond that, in November 2020 the Closed Joint-Stock Company “Kyiv Margarine Factory” (manufacturing unit Olkom Group) successfully passed a certification audit of international quality standard FSSC 22000 (version 5.0) fully acknowledged by controlling, regulatory and supervisory bodies throughout the world.

Working on the market for more than 70 years and adhering to Kyiv Margarine Factory’s traditions, Olkom implemented and broadened gained experience during the production of sunflower oil, mayonnaise, sauces, mustard, margarine, and fats. The company has a research and development department using laboratory facilities equipped with advanced analytical instrumentation. Today one of the mainstream businesses is food production with the added value in the section of specialty margarine and fats for baking, sugar confectionary, and dairy industry. Olkom Group supplies products to 17 countries, including the EU and the USA, due to high quality, innovative technologies and focuses on its customers’ and partners’ needs to adapt to the modern market demands.

Presently the manufacturing capacity of the company constitute:

• 60 000 tons per year of sunflower and tropical oil crushing;
• 53 000 tons per year of specialty industrial fats and margarine;
• 24 000 tons per year of trans-fats free products;
• 21 000 tons per year of sauces, mayonnaise, and packaged margarine.