Russia: Ochakovo�s market share diminishes in spite of increased investment

The Ochakovo brewery from Russia has scooped up several awards for innovation and modernisation in 2005, indicating it is well-placed for future market growth, despite that sales and profits slip this year, according to Russian media.

The brewery spent more than $350m building seven factories for manufacturing non-alcoholic drinks, malt and natural grape wines, and is currently putting up another factory in Tiumen. Each of the factories is also equipped with modern equipment from leading European manufacturers such as SIG Simonazzi (Italy), Sidel (France) and Buhler (Switzerland-Germany). In all, Ochakovo makes more than 5bn litres of drinks, including 1.4bn litres of beer .

However Ochakovo company controlled 7.8 % of the market, yet this had slipped to 6.7 % in 2004. The sales volume decreased 10 % in the first nine months of this year compared to last, leading to a fall in net income. Veaceslav Merculov, the sales director also left the company this spring to set up his own business.

The company’s president Kochetov stated, however, that poor sales at the start of this year were to blame for the poor performance in 2005, and that next year the company will work harder to motivate its employees and launch a new marketing programme.