Ukraine’s largest homegrown brewery Obolon has plans to renew sales in Russia, which accounted for up to 45 percent of its exports before sanctions were imposed in September banning the company’s suds.
The Kyiv-based beer company signed a
licensing agreement with the Moscow Brewing Company in the beginning of summer
to make beer inside Russia under its label, Obolon spokeswoman Oksana Pyrozhok
told LigaBiznesInform on July 27.
MBC is a direct competitor of Obolon inside
Ukraine through Persha Pryvatna Brovarnya (First Private Brewery), which
occupied 4.2 percent of the local market last year, according to brand design
company Koloro. It brews the Bochkove and Stare Misto brand beers as well as
Zhyhuli Barne and Oettinger at the Radomshyl brewery which it bought in late
2011 via OasisCIS.
The Obolon brewery located in the northside of Kyiv.
Obolon lost the Russian market in September
when Rospotrebnadzor, the state-run consumer rights watchdog, said the beer
didn’t “comply with energy value requirements and organoleptic characteristics.”
Obolon last year held 21.9 percent of
Ukraine’s beer market, behind multi-national companies AB InBev and Carlsberg
Ukraine, who had 34.7 and 29.1 percent, respectively.
Kyiv
Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].
