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Wimm-Bill-Dann To Open Georgia Plant

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  • Wimm-Bill-Dann To Open Georgia Plant

    WIMM-BILL-DANN TO OPEN GEORGIA PLANT
    Nadia Popova

    The Moscow Times
    Wednesday, August 12, 2009

    Wimm-Bill-Dann, Russia's biggest dairy and baby food producer, will
    open a plant in Tbilisi in late September, spokeswoman Marina Kagan
    said Tuesday.

    Wimm-Bill-Dann has invested about $500 million in modernizing the
    80-ton-a-day plant, which will be the company's 38th production site,
    Kagan said at a news conference.

    "We hope that our Caucasian milk, kefir, sour cream and
    chocolate-glazed curd bars will help improve relations between Russia
    and Georgia," she said. The company's chairman, David Yakobashvili,
    was born in Georgia.

    Wimm-Bill-Dann bought the plant, the third-largest dairy producer in
    Georgia, in October 2007 and has been modernizing it since then. The
    plant's products will be sold locally and exported to Azerbaijan and
    Armenia. The raw milk will be purchased from Georgian farmers.

    Wimm-Bill-Dann, which among other products makes Chudo brand yogurts
    and J7 juices, is expecting sales volumes for its dairy products to
    fall no more than 3 percent year on year in the second quarter, up
    from 6 percent in the first quarter, Kagan said. "We have seen some
    stabilization on the dairy market. Consumption has stopped falling,"
    she added.

    Vladimir Labinov, head of the Russian Dairy Union, said Tuesday
    that dairy consumption rose 2.5 percent for the first half of the
    year. Consumption rose 5 percent throughout 2008. "Milk is the
    cheapest source of protein, so people don't refuse buying it even
    during a crisis," Labinov said.

    Consumers, however, are becoming more cautious about which dairy
    products they buy. "They have switched to cheaper brands and basic
    products like cottage cheese and drinking milk rather than desert
    yogurts," said Natalya Smirnova, a consumer analyst at UralSib.

    And among the inexpensive brands, those seen as Russian-made have
    an advantage during the lean times. "Our yogurt volumes are growing,
    as consumers prefer Russian brands to the foreign ones and are trying
    to cut their spending," Kagan said.

    "This factor is more psychological, however, as foreign dairy producers
    have their production sites in Russia," she said.

    Danone, Ehrmann and Campina are Wimm-Bill-Dann's major foreign
    competitors on the Russian market.

    Wimm-Bill-Dann's net profit for the first quarter dropped by 70
    percent to $12.6 million, which Wimm-Bill-Dann attributed to the
    ruble devaluation.

    The company will disclose it's financial results for the second
    quarter early next month, Kagan said.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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