E-Malt.com News article: 367

Khairullin hopes to make the Russian Krasny Vostok brewery one of the world’s 10 largest breweries. Krasny Vostok is based in Central Russia, Republic of Tatarstan, Kazan city. Khairullin took the ruling of the 100-year-old company in 1996, when the brewery was producing only 2 million dekalitres of beer per year, Moscow Times.com revealed. Last year Krasny Vostok produced 40 million dekalitres and has registered a 68% increase in sales up to $770 million. It paid 1 billion rubles in taxes for that year, becoming the Tatarstan’s fifth-largest taxpayer.

"This year, we will produce about 55 million dekalitres," he said in an interview at the company's headquarters on the outskirts of the capital of Tatarstan. Moreover, Krasny Vostok is intending to raise its capacity to 150 million dekalitres per year by investing $60 million in opening a brewery in Novosibirsk in the first quarter of 2003.

The main Krasny Vostok’s brands are Krasny Vostok and newcomer Solodov. This powerful brand was launched last year and the company spent $5 million for its advertising campaign. Solodovpivo, is controlled offshore by the Swiss bank Sadeca Societe Financiere, according to the AK&M news agency. The obscure bank raised its stake in Solodovpivo by 11.77% to 71.57% earlier this year, the news agency reported.

Krasny Vostok, with a market share of 7%, is Russia's No. 4 brewer behind Baltika, Sun Interbrew and Ochakovo, according to Alexei Krivoshapko, an analyst at UFG. The company’s top market is Kazan, where it controlled 81.9% of the market by volume of beer sold in the first half of the year, Business Analytica said.

In spite of big volumes, Krasny Vostok is still a regional company, said Maria Vanifatova, general director of the Business Analytica Retail Index. "The growth of their distribution in other regions will influence the growth of the market share with a high probability," she said.


25 September, 2002