Russia: Vena brewery won an award for consistent innovation

Russian beer maker, Vena brewery, a subsidiary of Baltika, has won an award for consistent innovation in production technology, at the sixth ceremony in Moscow. Moreover, more expansion is planned in the country’s Celeabynsk region, CEE-Foodindustry communicated on January 30.

The sixth ceremony in Moscow is aimed at rewarding domestic firms who contribute to the “plenty and prosperity” of Russia, sponsored by the federal government. The news is another feather in the cap for Baltic Beverage Holding, a joint-venture brewer established by Carlsberg and Scottish & Newcastle, which makes up more than a third of the Russian beer market through its 91 per cent stake in domestic brewer Baltika.

Petr Cernishov, Vena's managing director, said at the award presentation: “Our Company has always tried to keep up with the development of the global brewing industry. This award is a fair evaluation of our long-term efforts.”

Vena invested more than $160m on modernising its breweries and increasing production capacity between 1994 and 2004.

This included a $60m rebuilding programme at the group's factory in Celeabynsk, something that has put the brewery inside Russia's top 10 today and helped it obtain a two per cent share of the national beer market. It makes 157m litres of beer per year.

Yet, Celeabynsk's region governor, Petr Sumin, said that more work was on the way. He said Baltika, through Vena, had proposed a new business strategy to the city administration, which would see the Celeabynsk brewery producing more brands – Baltika, Nevskoe and Yarpivo. – as well as the current Uralyskyi Master.

Sumin said he supported the plan, which will include a $70m investment to double the brewery's capacity. “The regional administration will support the investors and will create favourable conditions for business development.”

The plan is part of Baltika's consolidation strategy to have all its factories producing the same beer brands – something that should reduce transport costs and expand the products' reach.

The strategy has developed from Baltika's proposed merger between the brewers Vena, Pikra and Yarpivo, through which it expects to save RUB1.7-2.3bn (€50-66m) after the first full year.

“The combination of these four companies will strengthen Baltika as the leading brewer and the largest fast moving consumer goods company in Russia,” said Anton Artemiex, president of Baltika Breweries.

The move still needs to be cleared by Russian competition authorities and shareholders, although minority shareholders last year blocked an attempt to merge Baltika with the Pikra. They complained that Pikra had been wrongly valued, forcing a revaluation of the group which was estimated at RUB154bn. If the merger does go ahead this time, the enlarged Baltika will operate 10 breweries across the Russian Federation with a total annual capacity of 37m hectolitres.

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