$471 million Mother of one son Interests: alcohol production
What does it take to become the richest Ukrainian woman? The most obvious answer is marrying the richest Ukrainian man. But this is far from what Olha Nechytailo-Ridzhok did.
Instead, she in 1992 traded a cozy and potentially lucrative job as deputy mayor of Gorlivka, in Donetsk Oblast, to help her son Svyatoslav set up his private enterprise Bayadera, a company specializing in selling imported alcohol, cigarettes, chocolate and chewing gum.
Eighteen years since mom Nechylailo-Ridzhok stepped in, Bayadera has grown into the leading Ukrainian alcohol producer, a group of companies producing and distributing 12 brands of vodka and wine in Ukraine and Russia.
The Nechytailo-Ridzhoks are also active in retail, as their chain of discount supermarkets, Eko, has 68 stores in 24 cities of Ukraine. It is one of the few retail businesses that kept growing even during the crisis.
Baydera’s leading brand Khlibny Dar must be a matter of special pride for Nechytailo-Ridzhok as one of the top-three selling vodkas in the country.
This means that thousands of liters of vodka bought every week by Ukrainians (let’s face it, mostly men) were produced by Ukraine’s richest woman.
Nechylailo-Ridzhok isn’t even thinking of slowing down, as in April, Bayadera announced adding more facilities to its production plant in Cherkasy Oblast.
When it’s completed in 2012, the current capacity of 54,000 bottles per hour will increase by more than 50 percent.
Interestingly, Nechytailo-Ridzhok hasn’t forgotten her kiosk background, as she still deals with distributing imported spirits.
Only, instead of the no-name booze that ruled the market in the early 1990s, she now deals with top brands. Johnnie Walker, White Horse, Baileys and Smirnoff are just a few of her exclusive distributorship deals.
