The firm has closed its offices in Moscow and St Petersburg, and sold its Russian juice brand Uslada to a local company, Raritet, which distributes coffee and a range of food products, including dog and cat food.
Eckes-Granini entered the Russian market in 2001. Uslada was initially produced by the contract bottler Gouttes, but in 2006 production was shifted to Nidan, one of the country’s top four branded juice makers.
“We intend to further develop the Uslada brand, and will continue to cooperate with Nidan for its bottling,” said a spokesman for Raritet. He added that Raritet would also continue to distribute Granini’s eponymous premium juice brand, with supplies shipped from Germany.
The Russian juice market was growing strongly until as recently as 2007, but growth has slowed dramatically since the economic climate deteriorated. The market is led by Lebedyansky (which is in the final stages of being acquired by PepsiCo) and Multon (which is already owned by European bottler Coca-Cola Hellenic in partnership with The Coca-Cola Company).
Nidan is in close contention for third place on the market with Wimm-Bill-Dann, the major dairy, juice and water producer. Eckes-Granini’s share of the market is estimated to be about 2%.
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