“The success of an idea is limited by stubbornness” – the first handmade industrial khachapuri, ChiZZZy is preparing to enter the international market

Georgian cuisine is the country’s main export. Although khachapuri and khinkali are the most international phenomena of Georgian cuisine, it is difficult to modernize (despite several attempts). In a startup that chose khachapuri as its main product, at first glance there is nothing new, but the idea of ​​Giorgi Bochorishvili, co-founder of ChiZZZy, is so original and, at the same time, so simple, that it is hard to believe that no one has implemented it before.

“Our goal is to further promote khachapuri. The mission is that anyone can bake khachapuri – it doesn’t matter if a person has experience or has never baked anything. Most importantly, it should be possible to do it easily, quickly and cheaply. For the first time, we offer our customers semi-finished Adjarian khachapuri. The set includes Adjarian semi-baked unleavened krasti (base), made from hard cheese and cottage cheese (Imeruli/Sulgun) in a vacuum. Khachapuri only needs to be put in the oven and is ready in ten minutes.

After 7-8 months of testing the product, the company took its first steps at the Tbilisi Street Food Festival (Taste Tbilisi), offering its Adjarian khachapuri street food version to customers, which was well received. The idea was conceived 4 years ago, and the product has been sold in various networks since 2022. The Georgian market is only part of ChiZZZy’s plans – the company is seriously working to conquer international markets.

“Khachapuri is baked in many places in Georgia, but no one is exporting this product yet. For example, this year the global pizza market is worth $24 billion. Khachapuri is a completely original activity with huge potential. Now we are working on the next stage, which is semi-industrial production. This will allow us to obtain certificates and have competitive prices on the world market. We are negotiating with foreign chains and we hope to gain a place on the shelves of retailers. In Georgia, the industrial production of dough is actually not well developed. In this part, we help leading Dutch and German experts, and we are negotiating with factories that produce relevant equipment. We are particularly interested in several markets – the United States, Israel, Ukraine, Japan, the Middle East. The most problematic are European countries, because cheese cannot be imported there yet. Now we are clarifying with these companies what specific requirements we must meet in order to accept our products.”

Chizzzy plans to move in the direction of HORECA and franchise the CHIZZZY Street Café concept, where khachapuri can be baked in a new format with minimal investment.

If semi-industrialized production is carried out, the company will be able to produce 30,000 Adjarian and Imerian khachapuri in one shift. Today, no one in Georgia can produce such a quantity. This scale is necessary to successfully meet orders from the international market.

ChiZZZy began as a startup with the support of family members and friends – they believed in the founders’ idea and thought that further popularizing Georgian cuisine was a worthy goal.

“It’s always difficult when you have to deal with traditional things. You may see an idea, but not all ideas and thoughts are always implemented. The success of an idea depends on stubbornness – and most importantly not giving up. I have been working constantly since I was 16 years old and I have believed in this for a long time.” It is with this approach that ChiZZZy started and continues to work, with the immediate goal of transforming from a family business into an international company.